The sympathy is welcome but the fears are misguided, says the manager of one of the most luxurious Phuket hotels. Nothing, he says, would be more welcome and useful for the people living and working in Phuket than airplanes full of tourists.

Today the Andaman Sea is calm and crystal clear. The white-sand beaches are spotless clean with the tropical sun casting comforting shadows under the threes.

Tourists escaping the cold European weather are sitting under the shade of large colorful umbrellas by the enormous pool of the Sheraton Grande Laguna hotel in Phuket, Thailand.

A few dozen meters behind them, the Andaman Sea that recently flashed the Tsunami wave is again as exotic and serene as in the movie of The Beach or Paradise Lost.

Do you see any devastation around here?, asks the president of the Phuket hotels association, in fact, there is scarce evidence left of the massive Tsunami wave that swept through some of Phuket hotels on 26 December 2005.

The Six beachfront rooms of the Sheraton hotel in Phuket where the electrical installation and floors were damaged by the sea-water have long been repaired and the damaged grass around the pool has been replanted weeks ago. Even the thatched-roof restaurant right on the beach was rebuild and back open just a few days after the Tsunami hit Southern Thailand.

Phuket hotels are suffering from a very low occupancy and tourists are surrounded by dozens of empty deck chairs, which would all be filled in the months of January and February, which is normally high season for the many resorts and hotels in Phuket.

The Sheraton hotel is only 20 per cent full and in Phuket overall, where more than half of the island population works in the tourism industry, an average of less than 10 per cent occupancy is currently the rule, many staff are scared to loose their job.

While the major resorts and hotels in Phuket are trying to keep on their full staff, many smaller Phuket hotels are cutting back on staff to survive. Local officials predict more widespread layoffs if tourists don't start to come back before the end of February.

Those hotel cancellations have done more harm to Phuket than the tsunami wave, says a hotel manager, people think Phuket is a disaster area judging by the mass cancellations that hit all of the hotels in Phuket immediately after the tsunami impact. But those fears are misguided and today finding traces of the Tsunami in Phuket has become very difficult.

The people working in the Phuket tourism industry, from room-maid to hotel manager, are grateful for all the sympathy and aid coming from all parts of the world, but nothing would be more useful for the health of their jobs and family-income than airplanes full of arriving holidaymakers.

People here are angry and insist that the BBC and CNN reports of Phuket's destruction were greatly exaggerated and taken out of thin air. The debris on the beaches was cleared within days after the Tsunami impact, there has never been a water or food shortage and the water and sewer systems in have always been working perfectly.

Owners and managers of most Phuket hotels acknowledge that it is very difficult for people to understand that Phuket is back to normal, with the International Media naming Phuket together with Sri Lanka and Aceh province in Indonesia al in one sentence, but Phuket was already back in business when the TV-Media was still repeating the sensation footage of the Tsunami hitting the shores.

With the high season slowly but surely ticking away, hour by hour, travel agencies in Thailand are working very hard to spread the word that the resorts and hotels in Phuket are open for business and that the beaches have never looked as clean as today.

Phuket officials are even organizing many new festivals and attractions, starting with a huge Chinese New Year celebration in the month of February and an grand sand-sculpture competition in the month of March.

The government of Thailand is giving away free flights and hotel stays to more than 1,500 international travel agents and tour operators to have them see firsthand that the beaches and hotels in Phuket are again very worthy to take care of their clients.

If the world would accept our invitation and come, they would enjoy a fun holiday and see for themselves that Phuket is not damaged, says Khun Pinpradab from the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), while pointing at some tourists enjoying their beer and Fish and Chips at a small open-air bar across the street of Patong Beach.

To give CNN and BBC their due, yes there is a lot of damage in Khao Lak, about 60 miles north of Phuket where almost every hotel has been damaged. The rebuilding of the tourist industry in Khao Lak could take more than 1-year. But on Phuket itself, the damage was very limited to only the beachfront.

When the Tsunami hit Thailand, we wanted to cancel our hotel booking, says an British tourist, it didn't seem the right think to come and enjoy ourselves in a place where people were mourning. But the travel agency in Phuket said that things were not as bad as the Media proclaimed and pleaded us to come. Now we are very happy we did come. The friendly Thai people so much appreciate that we are supporting their jobs by enjoying our holiday to Phuket.

At the southern tip of Phuket island, on Kata Beach, the tropical sun is glaring over the white sand. Tourists linger on the beach in the shade of some banyan trees, just in front of the Club Med resort hotel, while many long-tail boats lay for anker in the crystal clear water near the beach.

Before the Tsunami, those beautiful crafted Thai long-tail boats would be ferrying snorkellers to the surrounding reefs and smaller islands. Now the boat owners, who are scared they will have to sell their boats to survive, are napping while waiting for scarce customers.

Patong beach on the west coast of Phuket has always been the Waikiki of Thailand. Two parallel roads along Patong beach hold hundreds of hotels, restaurants, shops and bars, which made Patong one of the liveliest beach resorts in Asia, but today the Patong hotels and resorts are waiting for customers, shops are advertising huge discounts and seafood restaurants are nearly empty.

Bangla Road, the famous nightlife area from Patong Beach is again as before: A noisy arcade of neon lights, pop music, bars, saloons, discos and cabarets. There are much less customers than before but signs of recovery are being seen with every day more and more people strolling around the small sois from the Bangla nightlife area.

Maybe there is still hope for the many Phuket hotels and resorts and the thousands of people that work in the tourism industry.