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A year after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami shattered the
billion-dollar tourism industry in southern
Thailand, Kiwi guesthouse and
bar owner David Simone is still annoyed.
 He reckons he has just had his best low season ever on
Phuket island –
most nights his 20 rooms are full – and yet, over the past year, whenever he
turns on the TV he sees reports about the devastation kilometres up the
coast in Khao Lak.
When the tsunami roared into Thailand's resort-studded Andaman Sea coast,
he says, not all beaches sustained the same amount of damage.
Some on the 570sq km island of Phuket were hardly affected at all.
"Things picked up again straight away for us," says the 63-year-old
former Christchurch man who has lived on Phuket for years and runs several
guesthouses and bars on
Karon Beach, south of the popular
Patong Beach
strip.
"What really p..... us off was irresponsible journalists. They were
staying at four-star hotels on Patong and showing pictures of Khao Lak,
which was decimated, where 3000 Swedish people died in an hour, just like
that," Simone says.
"It will be like that at the anniversary commemorations, too."
Khao Lak, where the majority of the 5395 people
died in Thailand on Boxing Day last year, is about 80km north on the
mainland.
The Thai government's multi-million-dollar tsunami commemoration that
begins on beaches along the Andaman coast on Monday is drawing the ire of
many locals and expatriates.
"It's the worst thing they could do. It will be a tacky memorial and will
open old sores. People want to forget and move on," Simone says.
He remembers December 26, 2004, vividly.
"I was in my bungalow asleep and there was a knock, knock, knock on the
door. Somebody was yelling `Papa, Papa the water comes'," he says.
He is not married and has a Thai girlfriend. "Anyone over 40 gets called
Papa," he says.
"I put on some jeans and ran down the lane and there were deckchairs
floating past. But we were very, very lucky on Karon. Only three people
died. The damage wasn't that bad and within a few days we had it all cleaned
up.
"On Patong it hit the waterfront and it was like water pouring down a
funnel. It shot up the lanes. There were fish in the Thai Pan nightclub. But
within eight to nine days most of the little shops were open again."
However, not all guesthouse owners and tourism operators have been as
fortunate.
Michael Massey, a 41-year-old Aucklander and managing director of the
Phuket Post newspaper, said expatriate and local communities were still
reeling.
"Phuket is primarily a tourist economy. We make 80 per cent of our income
in three months and we didn't get that last year," he says of the
December-February period.
The Phuket resident of two years is credited by New Zealand diplomats
with playing a major role in helping survivors of the Boxing Day waves.
"It's been a very tough year. About 30% of the SMEs (small and
medium-sized enterprises) have gone down the drain," he says.
"A lot of people are in economic pain still. On the surface, things look
good, the Government has worked hard to clear the rubble and rebuild things
on the island, but that is just the surface."
Phuket's economy has lost about $US25 million ($NZ36m) a month since the
tsunami, according to official statistics. Most large hotels are less than
50% full at the time of the year when occupancy used to be 100%.
The Government's "Phuket is Back" campaign, of which the tsunami
commemorations are part, is seeking to reverse those post-tsunami losses.
Things are improving. Most of Phuket's 35,000 hotel rooms have now been
rebuilt and reopened.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand still predicts 12 million arrivals in
the country as a whole for 2005, compared with nearly 14 million before the
tsunami hit.
Dozens of planes are landing daily at Phuket's international airport
including full Boeing 747s.
Along Patong Beach, where many holidaymakers including Kiwis perished,
the only evidence of the tsunami are dozens of signs pointing inland to
evacuation routes.
At least two dozen tsunami early warning towers now dot golden beaches
overlooking emerald seas.
For some tourists, that is unnerving. But for others the tsunami is one
of the reasons they are here.
"Come back, God yes," Simone says.
"We had a lot of Aussies and Kiwis here this low season. Most have been
here before and they want to come back and contribute to the economy."
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