Tsunami films seen as tourism boost

Thailand officials are hoping that a clutch of Hollywood movies and TV documentaries on the Asian tsunami that are scheduled to be shot in the country might actually help bring back tourists to its devastated beaches.

CBS is eyeing locations on the tourist island of Phuket, one of six Thai provinces hit by the giant waves last year, for a four-part series on the tsunami, they said. And Warner Bros. and John McTiernan, who directed the action movie “Die Hard,” were also expected to shoot separate films on the disaster in Thailand, a spokesman for the Tourism Authority of Thailand said.

Thai Tourism Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said he was counting on movies to boost tourism similar to what the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy did for New Zealand’s tourist trade.

“If we can put some Thai scenes in a movie, whether it’s about the tsunami or not, more tourists will want to come to Thailand,” the tourism minister said this week.

Thailand has struggled to lure visitors back to its Andaman Sea playground where nearly 5,400 people died on Dec. 26, including almost 2,000 foreigners. Tourism accounts for 6% of the country’s gross domestic product.

International arrivals at Phuket airport were down 77% in January through March, compared with the first three months of 2004.

Phuket, where 239 people died, suffered far less damage than luxury resorts at Khao Lak, about 90 miles north, where more than 3,000 died and almost no hotels have reopened.