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Reporting from Phuket, Thailand—
In the maze of dive shops, souvenir stores and cafes tucked behind Tonsai beach on Phi Phi Don island, shopkeeper Mab Pat waited for paying customers. "People come," she said, "but they don't buy."
On one wall was a T-shirt emblazoned: "2001 Bomb Alert. 2002 SARS. 2003 Bird Flu. 2004 Tsunami. 2005 Earthquake. What next?"
What next, it turned out, was civil unrest and a worldwide recession, the latest blow to the resorts of southern Thailand. No small matters, but not as devastating as the events of Dec. 26, 2004.
On that day a 9.0 underwater earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed a quarter-million people throughout South Asia and devastated hundreds of villages in Indonesia, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Six provinces in Thailand along the Andaman coast, home to some of Thailand's best-known resort islands, including Phuket and Phi Phi, were hit about two hours after the quake. Nearly 6,000 people died.
Five years later, tourist-dependent Phuket and Phi Phi have mopped up and tried to move on. Hotels have been repaired or reinvented with new names. In and near Phuket, dozens of new hotels, many of them deluxe, have opened or are to debut by 2011.
Things are not quite back to normal, I learned on my November visit, my second since the tsunami tragedy.
Besides the swine flu epidemic, there have been reports, as recently as April, of anti-government protests in Bangkok. The U.S. State Department warns tourists of the potential for political violence in Bangkok and in the far south near the border with Malaysia, but not specifically in Phuket, about 500 miles south of Bangkok.
Then there is the faltering economy. Top-end hotels are discounting rooms and spa services as Phuket grapples with filling 42,000 hotel rooms -- and 5,000 more to come by 2011. All this is in the face of 3 million fewer foreign visitors to Phuket in the last two years and hotel occupancy rates that have dipped from 66% in 2007 to 57% in the first quarter of 2009.
"And today they spend less," said Bangornrat Shinaprayoon, director of the Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
So Shinaprayoon is focusing on selling Phuket as an "amazing value." It's true: Phuket is a relatively inexpensive destination, where you can find top-end restaurants and luxury hotels or backpacker lodgings and modest meals.
New properties include four Courtyards by Marriott, the minimalist B-lay Tong at Patong Beach and the Rixos Premium Khao Lak, on the site of a Sofitel that was destroyed by the tsunami. Coming in March is the Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa. Other properties slated to open in 2010 are the Regent Phuket Cape Panwa and the Yamu, a boutique hotel with designer Philippe Starck's imprint. A Four Points by Sheraton Phuket at Makham Bay is to open in January 2011.
When I visited Phuket and Phi Phi a year after the tsunami, I saw beachfronts where only crumbling foundations and swimming pools remained and shredded long-tail boats washed onshore. At small shops along Phuket's Patong Beach, merchants told me of losing everything in the tsunami. Tourism fell by half in 2005, bumped up in 2006, then fell again.
I had returned in November to see how things had changed in the wake of all that had happened. I found every imaginable amenity, as well as friendly and accommodating people, and at no time did I feel in any danger, although I stayed out of the seedier places at night.
Sun-seekers -- many of them Aussies -- have returned to Patong Beach, the largest and most popular of Phuket's 17 sandy strands. Above them, a few parasailers swooped over Patong Bay. But there weren't enough takers for the pedicures, manicures, massages and hair weaves offered by women who set up shop on Oriental rugs placed on the sand.
Opposite the beach, visitors strolled past the jumble of tourist-targeted souvenir, T-shirt and bikini shops, tattoo and teeth whitening parlors. But few, it seemed, were buying. In his tailor shop called High Versace, Hom Perkhas waited for customers. He said he had lost everything in the tsunami and started over. Now, he said, "people are scared because of the economy. Everybody is the same as me in Phuket. Sometimes three days, zero customers, and costs keep rising. No tourists, no job, no eat, no sleep."
Outside, Crayon-colored little taxis -- tuk tuks -- lined up at the beach, waiting for fares.
Return to Phi Phi
I also was eager to return to Phi Phi, which lies 30 miles off Phuket and was hard hit by the tsunami. I wondered what had become of the people I'd met there five years ago, in particular Ibrahim Ngankaeng. I'd come across him sitting among flattened coconut palms in front of a sign that read "Return to Paradise." Ngankaeng, then 64, had told me he lost his wife and two grandsons in the tsunami, as well as his rental bungalows and restaurant.
On one wall was a T-shirt emblazoned: "2001 Bomb Alert. 2002 SARS. 2003 Bird Flu. 2004 Tsunami. 2005 Earthquake. What next?"
What next, it turned out, was civil unrest and a worldwide recession, the latest blow to the resorts of southern Thailand. No small matters, but not as devastating as the events of Dec. 26, 2004.
On that day a 9.0 underwater earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed a quarter-million people throughout South Asia and devastated hundreds of villages in Indonesia, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
Six provinces in Thailand along the Andaman coast, home to some of Thailand's best-known resort islands, including Phuket and Phi Phi, were hit about two hours after the quake. Nearly 6,000 people died.
Five years later, tourist-dependent Phuket and Phi Phi have mopped up and tried to move on. Hotels have been repaired or reinvented with new names. In and near Phuket, dozens of new hotels, many of them deluxe, have opened or are to debut by 2011.
Things are not quite back to normal, I learned on my November visit, my second since the tsunami tragedy.
Besides the swine flu epidemic, there have been reports, as recently as April, of anti-government protests in Bangkok. The U.S. State Department warns tourists of the potential for political violence in Bangkok and in the far south near the border with Malaysia, but not specifically in Phuket, about 500 miles south of Bangkok.
Then there is the faltering economy. Top-end hotels are discounting rooms and spa services as Phuket grapples with filling 42,000 hotel rooms -- and 5,000 more to come by 2011. All this is in the face of 3 million fewer foreign visitors to Phuket in the last two years and hotel occupancy rates that have dipped from 66% in 2007 to 57% in the first quarter of 2009.
"And today they spend less," said Bangornrat Shinaprayoon, director of the Phuket office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
So Shinaprayoon is focusing on selling Phuket as an "amazing value." It's true: Phuket is a relatively inexpensive destination, where you can find top-end restaurants and luxury hotels or backpacker lodgings and modest meals.
New properties include four Courtyards by Marriott, the minimalist B-lay Tong at Patong Beach and the Rixos Premium Khao Lak, on the site of a Sofitel that was destroyed by the tsunami. Coming in March is the Westin Siray Bay Resort & Spa. Other properties slated to open in 2010 are the Regent Phuket Cape Panwa and the Yamu, a boutique hotel with designer Philippe Starck's imprint. A Four Points by Sheraton Phuket at Makham Bay is to open in January 2011.
When I visited Phuket and Phi Phi a year after the tsunami, I saw beachfronts where only crumbling foundations and swimming pools remained and shredded long-tail boats washed onshore. At small shops along Phuket's Patong Beach, merchants told me of losing everything in the tsunami. Tourism fell by half in 2005, bumped up in 2006, then fell again.
I had returned in November to see how things had changed in the wake of all that had happened. I found every imaginable amenity, as well as friendly and accommodating people, and at no time did I feel in any danger, although I stayed out of the seedier places at night.
Sun-seekers -- many of them Aussies -- have returned to Patong Beach, the largest and most popular of Phuket's 17 sandy strands. Above them, a few parasailers swooped over Patong Bay. But there weren't enough takers for the pedicures, manicures, massages and hair weaves offered by women who set up shop on Oriental rugs placed on the sand.
Opposite the beach, visitors strolled past the jumble of tourist-targeted souvenir, T-shirt and bikini shops, tattoo and teeth whitening parlors. But few, it seemed, were buying. In his tailor shop called High Versace, Hom Perkhas waited for customers. He said he had lost everything in the tsunami and started over. Now, he said, "people are scared because of the economy. Everybody is the same as me in Phuket. Sometimes three days, zero customers, and costs keep rising. No tourists, no job, no eat, no sleep."
Outside, Crayon-colored little taxis -- tuk tuks -- lined up at the beach, waiting for fares.
Return to Phi Phi
I also was eager to return to Phi Phi, which lies 30 miles off Phuket and was hard hit by the tsunami. I wondered what had become of the people I'd met there five years ago, in particular Ibrahim Ngankaeng. I'd come across him sitting among flattened coconut palms in front of a sign that read "Return to Paradise." Ngankaeng, then 64, had told me he lost his wife and two grandsons in the tsunami, as well as his rental bungalows and restaurant.
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