Capacity shortage hitting tsunami regions
The UN World Tourism Organisation has warned that tourism to the tsunami-hit regions of Asia will not recover until “sometime in 2006” because of capacity restrictions.
The forecast comes in spite of predictably optimistic outlooks from affected countries which suggest a buoyant winter season.
The UNWTO – recently renamed to avoid confusion with the World Trade Organisation – said a full recovery will not come so quickly, revealing arrivals to Phuket in August were still down 50%. It described the recovery to beach destinations as “sluggish.”
“Indonesia, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand are optimistic that a strong winter season marked by high occupancy rates will finally put an end to the lingering crisis that has dragged down arrivals and tourism revenues in the past 11 months,” a statement said.
“But a WTO assessment of the post-tsunami recovery indicates that hotel room capacity and air seat capacity to Thailand’s Andaman coast, Sri Lanka and the Maldives is substantially lower than before the tragedy.
“It [the assessment] concludes that a full recovery will not be possible until capacity is fully restored sometime in 2006.”
The capacity shortage is most acute in Thailand, the report said. On Phi Phi island, only 400 out of 2000 rooms are available while on Khao Lak fewer than 500 out of 6000 rooms have re-opened.
In addition to Phuket’s slow recovery, arrivals to Sri Lanka’s south coast were down 53% in August with October’s arrivals to the Maldives down 23%.
The UNWTO also appealed to the media not to heap further hardship on affected regions by re-publishing graphic images of the tsunami as the first anniversary approaches.
It urged “restraint” so that “tourists will not be scared off for a second time.”
Report by Steve Jones
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