By IPS Correspondents
PHUKET, Thailand, Feb 18 2005 (IPS)

This idyllic island on the Andaman Sea in southern Thailand is recovering quickly from the devastating December tsunami seven weeks ago, thanks mainly to the resourcefulness of its people.

But talking to the same people here, one gets a sense of gloom and doom. They are worried that a second tragedy is looming – that is a massive laying off of people from their jobs and the associated social problems, if the tourists don’t return quickly enough to the area.

Phuket and its surrounding islands are dependent on tourism for its social harmony and prosperity. They are well known for their beautiful beaches, calm waters and colourful underwater scenery, thus making this a prime diving location in Asia.

But, at Chalong Bay in the south of the island scores of boats are anchored in the harbour, with the boat operators playing cards or just gazing at the sea on the beachfront. One tour operator told IPS that out of the 60 boats that operate from here, only three have gone out to sea for the day.

”Within seven days of the tsunami we had a 90 percent cancellation for the next four months,” said a dive shop owner. ”Most dive centres are now closed. We have boats in the harbour, but nobody to take out.”

An expatriate businessman, who has been running a diving and tour agency here for almost a decade, said that on Phuket Island itself there were about 115 diving companies.

The businessman also revealed that many dive shops, here, had already folded up.

When the killer waves struck on Dec. 26, spawned by an undersea quake in Indonesia’s northern Sumatra island, an estimated 5,392 people died in Phuket and neighbouring islands due to the surging waters. Local authorities in the tsunami-hit coastal resort town have estimated the provincial damage bill from the disaster at around 7.5 billion baht (187.5 million U.S. dollars)

About 400,000 divers come to Thailand each year, mostly to Phuket and the adjoining areas, generating over 20 million baht (5.1 million U.S. dollars), which is about 7 percent of the Thai tourism revenue.

”We have six months of feast (high season) and six months of famine. This year we only had one and half months of the high season,” explained a dive shop operator who only wanted to be known as Richard.

”So we are looking at about 10 months of no income. If tourists won’t come in the next couple of months, most businesses will go down,” he told IPS.

He blames international media reports in December, which wrongly described Phuket as ”totally destroyed”. That, he said, scared the tourists away.

And the tourist industry’s representative body – the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) – agrees with that view.

”These media reports damaged our product,” complained Oraval Paethong, manager of the PTA’s Tsunami Recovery Centre in an interview.

”People think, we’re damaged, so there is no confidence to visit us,” she added. ”Asians are scared to come because of stories (in their media) of ghosts here, and Westerners don’t want to come because they are being told (by their media) that there is disease, with all the dead bodies lying about.”

”There are no ghosts and no diseases,” Oraval clarified. ”What we want is for tourists to come back. It helps the people in every avenue; it’s much better than donations.”

This week, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop in presenting a six billion baht (15.5 million U.S. dollars) budget to Cabinet for the rehabilitation of the tourist industry in the south of Thailand, urged Asian tourists to return to the Thai resorts in order to help the tsunami-hit provinces recover swiftly from the economic downturn.

Under the package to be discussed by the Thai Cabinet next week are measures to wave aircraft landing fees, suspending entry fees to 24 national parks and offering lower airfares. The government is also considering granting Phuket duty-free status for six months, in order to help attract not only foreign tourists, but also Thais.

Eighty million baht (20.7 million U.S. dollars) have also been allocated for marketing and public relations campaigns worldwide.

Meanwhile, an American expatriate living here, Reid Ridgway, a mass media marketing consultant has proposed a novel scheme to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), which he calls an ‘Emotional Tourism Campaign’.

He told IPS that he had already raised 25 percent of the funds and if the Thai government was willing to come on board as a partner, he would set up a training centre here to train retrenched Thai dive professionals to upgrade their skills, including in mass marketing and communications.

Once they are trained in these skills, his scheme is to link them via internet to communities such as professional unions, big corporations, aid agencies, religious groups and community organisations which have been active in raising donations for tsunami aid, to make a direct appeal for them to visit the island.

”My goal is to create a positive marketing programme by using their stories to encourage people to come here,” he explained. ”The programme will stimulate volunteer tourism, while the marketing strategy will make the emotional connection to book a tour.”

Excerpt:

By IPS Correspondents
PHUKET, Thailand, Feb 18 2005 (IPS)

This idyllic island on the Andaman Sea in southern Thailand is recovering quickly from the devastating December tsunami seven weeks ago, thanks mainly to the resourcefulness of its people.

But talking to the same people here, one gets a sense of gloom and doom. They are worried that a second tragedy is looming – that is a massive laying off of people from their jobs and the associated social problems, if the tourists don’t return quickly enough to the area.

Phuket and its surrounding islands are dependent on tourism for its social harmony and prosperity. They are well known for their beautiful beaches, calm waters and colourful underwater scenery, thus making this a prime diving location in Asia.

But, at Chalong Bay in the south of the island scores of boats are anchored in the harbour, with the boat operators playing cards or just gazing at the sea on the beachfront. One tour operator told IPS that out of the 60 boats that operate from here, only three have gone out to sea for the day.

”Within seven days of the tsunami we had a 90 percent cancellation for the next four months,” said a dive shop owner. ”Most dive centres are now closed. We have boats in the harbour, but nobody to take out.”

An expatriate businessman, who has been running a diving and tour agency here for almost a decade, said that on Phuket Island itself there were about 115 diving companies.

The businessman also revealed that many dive shops, here, had already folded up.

When the killer waves struck on Dec. 26, spawned by an undersea quake in Indonesia’s northern Sumatra island, an estimated 5,392 people died in Phuket and neighbouring islands due to the surging waters. Local authorities in the tsunami-hit coastal resort town have estimated the provincial damage bill from the disaster at around 7.5 billion baht (187.5 million U.S. dollars)

About 400,000 divers come to Thailand each year, mostly to Phuket and the adjoining areas, generating over 20 million baht (5.1 million U.S. dollars), which is about 7 percent of the Thai tourism revenue.

”We have six months of feast (high season) and six months of famine. This year we only had one and half months of the high season,” explained a dive shop operator who only wanted to be known as Richard.

”So we are looking at about 10 months of no income. If tourists won’t come in the next couple of months, most businesses will go down,” he told IPS.

He blames international media reports in December, which wrongly described Phuket as ”totally destroyed”. That, he said, scared the tourists away.

And the tourist industry’s representative body – the Phuket Tourist Association (PTA) – agrees with that view.

”These media reports damaged our product,” complained Oraval Paethong, manager of the PTA’s Tsunami Recovery Centre in an interview.

”People think, we’re damaged, so there is no confidence to visit us,” she added. ”Asians are scared to come because of stories (in their media) of ghosts here, and Westerners don’t want to come because they are being told (by their media) that there is disease, with all the dead bodies lying about.”

”There are no ghosts and no diseases,” Oraval clarified. ”What we want is for tourists to come back. It helps the people in every avenue; it’s much better than donations.”

This week, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop in presenting a six billion baht (15.5 million U.S. dollars) budget to Cabinet for the rehabilitation of the tourist industry in the south of Thailand, urged Asian tourists to return to the Thai resorts in order to help the tsunami-hit provinces recover swiftly from the economic downturn.

Under the package to be discussed by the Thai Cabinet next week are measures to wave aircraft landing fees, suspending entry fees to 24 national parks and offering lower airfares. The government is also considering granting Phuket duty-free status for six months, in order to help attract not only foreign tourists, but also Thais.

Eighty million baht (20.7 million U.S. dollars) have also been allocated for marketing and public relations campaigns worldwide.

Meanwhile, an American expatriate living here, Reid Ridgway, a mass media marketing consultant has proposed a novel scheme to the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), which he calls an ‘Emotional Tourism Campaign’.

He told IPS that he had already raised 25 percent of the funds and if the Thai government was willing to come on board as a partner, he would set up a training centre here to train retrenched Thai dive professionals to upgrade their skills, including in mass marketing and communications.

Once they are trained in these skills, his scheme is to link them via internet to communities such as professional unions, big corporations, aid agencies, religious groups and community organisations which have been active in raising donations for tsunami aid, to make a direct appeal for them to visit the island.

”My goal is to create a positive marketing programme by using their stories to encourage people to come here,” he explained. ”The programme will stimulate volunteer tourism, while the marketing strategy will make the emotional connection to book a tour.”

Excerpt: