It’s been slightly over a year now that the South Asian Tsunami struck 12 nations fringing the Indian Ocean. The earthquake that generated the equivalent to 60,000 Hiroshima A-bombs has all but been forgotten, especially by those whose lives were not directly affected by the tragedy. A year later we notice that the weather has gone awry, the sun sets slightly more to the northwest than on Christmas Day 2004….and asian tourists still shun going to disaster-affected areas.
Yes…not just that: even Malaysians shun beach areas. A friend of mine who runs a windsurfing school/facility in Port Dickson makes only around RM30 a month after paying his staff. He is now behind in terms of rent. That is Port Dickson…it was not affected at all by the killer waves that struck coastal areas some 400 kilometers to the north. Port Dickson that once commanded an average of 60% occupancy rate, fell to just over 30% early 2005. Among reasons cited was fear of tsunami. Even in the Perhentian Islands occupancy rate dropped in July 2005…again, fear of tsunami occuring there was the main reason. I suppose not many people liked high-school geography.
What about in Thailand? The number of tourist arrivals in the provinces of Phuket, Phang-nga and Krabi dropped from 2.9 million to 1.2 million over the same period, and corresponding revenue dropped from RM490 million to RM150 million. Again, superstitious Asians have shunned from going there, especially from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, whose numbers fell most precipitously. Asian people believe that it is not auspicious to visit places where there are a number of people who died.
Therefore it is up to divers like us to play our part in helping countries of this region to boost their tourism sales…by using our network of divers and nature lovers aggressively to bring in more tourists.
If we don’t help ourselves, no one else will…
SeaDemon Says 