Only six days after Phuket in Thailand was hit by the Asian tsunami wave, foreign tourists are already returning to the cleaned-up beaches of the Thai resort island, playing in the waves, riding jet skis and sunbathing topless on the white sandy beaches.
Local Thais still thinking about the tragedy that hit them acknowledged that as soon as tourists get back on the beach and enjoy the fun for which Phuket was famous before the tsunami, the sooner business will start again and the thousands of Thai people that have jobs in Phuket will see their daily income come back.
Today, January 02, 2005, dozens of foreign tourists were sunbathing on Karon and Patong beach with even the first European topless girls appearing again, all while in some corners of the beach, volunteer students from Phuket international schools and the Thai army were still clearing up debris left by the tsunami wave that rolled in last week.
Tourists are the lifeblood of Phuket and our daily bowl of rice, said an old massage lady on the beach. Only a very small portion of the Phuket hotels have been damaged and only 5 percent of the Phuket hotel rooms are closed, mostly due to water damage. 95% of the Phuket hotels are operational as usual. By contrast the smaller island of Koh Phi Phi and the Khao Lak area are much worse damaged.
Many tourists have not left Phuket island and were helping as volunteers in the first days of the tsunami aftermath and are now simply continuing their holidays. An English tourist said he does not understand where International Newspapers and TV are getting their information that Phuket island has been completely destroyed, while pointing his finger at some topless girls sunbathing on the beach, he said: That's what they should be showing on TV instead.
The tourism industry in Phuket will not get affected much by the Tsunami event, said Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, he estimates that the tsunamis will probably cost 0.3 percent of the gross domestic product growth in 2005. Foreign tourists may be scared for a short while by the images they see on TV, but those fears will soon fade away as the Media will loose its interest.
