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Travelers urged to return after tsunami
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-02 10:06
Tsunami-lashed nations on Tuesday urged travelers to return to southern
Asia's ravaged coasts and deserted resorts to revive the vital tourism industry,
while the United Nations said it would proceed with an interim warning system to
protect vulnerable shores from killer waves.
Dozens of countries at talks organized by the U.N. World Tourism Organization
finalized a plan to lure back tourists to four nations hit by the giant waves —
Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia. The talks took place on this
badly hit resort island.
![Surin beach is lined with parasols and deck chairs in Phuket, southern Thailand, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005. Officials and executives from dozens of countries on Tuesday worked out details in a plan to rekindle tourism in tsunami-struck southern Asia, while donors pledged more than US$50 million to ease the regional effects of the industry's worst-ever disaster. [AP]](xin_52020202100943705668.jpg)
Surin beach is lined with parasols and deck
chairs in Phuket, southern Thailand, Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005. Officials and
executives from dozens of countries on Tuesday worked out details in a
plan to rekindle tourism in tsunami-struck southern Asia, while donors
pledged more than US$50 million to ease the regional effects of the
industry's worst-ever disaster. [AP] | The tsunami was the biggest catastrophe ever to strike world tourism, with
many travelers and tourism workers killed and facilities destroyed, said the
organization's chief, Francesco Frangialli.
The best form of aid to countries hit by the tsunami will be the revival of
tourism, which in turn would lead to jobs and the restoration of basic services
such as water, sanitation and electricity, Frangialli said.
"I wish to call upon the tourists themselves, those who are unsure about
whether to go ahead and visit Phuket or the seaside hotels of Sri Lanka or the
Maldives," Frangialli said. "Their rapid return to the tsunami-affected
countries is imperative for the recovery of the countries."
Proposals to bring back tourists include ad campaigns and airline ticket
giveaways, as well as financial assistance for small tourism-linked businesses
such as restaurants and handicraft makers.
The number of people killed by the tsunami ranges from about 157,000 to
178,000 across 11 nations. The hardest hit countries were Indonesia and Sri
Lanka. Combined with estimates of up to 142,000 missing in the region — most
presumed dead — more than a quarter-million people may have been lost.
Indonesia's National Disaster Relief Coordinating Board announced that
workers found 1,059 more bodies in Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra island,
bringing the nation's toll to 109,297. Another Indonesian agency has a higher
toll, of 123,198.
Plans moved ahead to install a monitoring system in the Indian Ocean to warn
coast areas of tsunami dangers.
The United Nations said it is developing an interim system that could go into
operation almost immediately, until a full-fledged network is put in place
The region is working on installing a permanent warning system similar to one
that exists for the Pacific Ocean, but differences among countries have blocked
a decision on where to host a disaster warning center. A conference last week in
Phuket decided upon several smaller regional centers.
Under the interim system, the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the IOC
Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii would provide national authorities in
the Indian Ocean region with information and warnings.
New images of the destruction emerged Tuesday. A video shot Dec. 26 showed
residents floating on a carpet of debris atop torrents of water gushing through
Banda Aceh's streets.
The video, made by a local cameraman and obtained by Associated Press
Television News, shows people lying on the road as if on a listing ship as the
ground is jolted by the magnitude 9 quake. The tape is perhaps the only one to
record the earthquake.
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