South and Southeast Asia
By Larry Habegger | Permalink |
1 comment | January 18th, 2005 | Trackback
Areas devastated by the tsunami are recovering at different paces, with Aceh province in Indonesia’s Sumatra the hardest hit and farthest from any semblance of normalcy. Many other areas, however, are on the mend and several countries are pleading with tourists to return because their economies depend on them. Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldive Islands in particular are trying to dispel the perception that they are ruined. Even the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has put out a call for tourists to come back because tourist dollars are critical to the recovery. In the Maldives, 64 of 87 resorts are still open, and only 6 received extensive damage. In Thailand, some areas were wiped out but others remain in business. Facilities on Phi Phi Island and much of the Khao Lak resort area in Phang Nga province were destroyed. Phuket, however, lost only 10 percent of its hotel rooms despite its high visibility in the disaster. Krabi�s Andaman Sea coast was hit hard, but the rest of the region was unharmed. And islands and coastal regions on the Gulf of Thailand, though untouched by the tsunami, have seen tour cancellations. In Sri Lanka, 56 hotels were shut down by the disaster, but 243 remain open. Indonesia�s Aceh province is a long way from recovery and still faces a grave humanitarian crisis, but before the disaster it was off-limits to tourists because of an ongoing insurgency, and had little tourism infrastructure. Indonesia�s principal resort areas were untouched by the tsunami.
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South and Southeast Asia
By Larry Habegger | Permalink |
No Comments | January 4th, 2005 | Trackback
As the relief effort for areas hit by the tsunami builds momentum, Thai officials are implementing an early warning system that will alert citizens to future tsunami dangers, allowing evacuations to take place in time to save lives. Tsunamis are much more frequent in the Pacific Ocean and early warning systems to prevent disaster in Pacific nations have been in place for some time. Indian Ocean nations now need to establish a similar network. The Thai official in charge of setting up the system for Thailand vowed it would be ready in six months.
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my husband is from small island called madura raas in java indonesia. he is very concerned the two tsunamis may have affected madura where his mother and extended family all live. the media has not mentioned if his island was affected so its very frustrating not knowing as we have not been able to afford to return to java for four years since our twin girls were two years old. we also have a three year old little boy who has never met his grandmother so we are praying the island was unaffected. the island is so remote that there is no electricity,running water, phone service or post.
because of this my husbands mother and family do not even know about our new sons existence and we are extremely frustrated at being unable to find out if theyre all ok.
if anybody has any information on madura or has recently travelled to that region of indonesia can they please put our minds at ease as we are desperate to know. thankyou lyndal and asnawi anton and family.