Asian tourism may grow 11 %

Asian tourism may grow 11 %

Associated Press, Hong Kong

Regional travel experts expect double-digit growth in Asian tourism this year despite the recent tsunami disaster, a newspaper reported on Monday.

The industry is still struggling to recover in the Indian Ocean countries that were hit hardest by the Dec. 26 tsunami, with arrival figures down by as much as 40 percent in the first three months of this year against the same period in 2004, Pacific Asia Travel Association President Peter de Jong told the group's annual conference on Sunday in Macau, the South China Morning Post reported.

De Jong predicted, however, that tourism will grow by 15 percent in southern Asia, 14 percent in northern Asia and up to 11 percent for the whole of Asia by the end of 2005.

"Despite the tsunami, associated nervousness and a short-term dampening effect, we're seeing the entire region recovering strongly and dramatically," the daily quoted de Jong as saying.

He said European - especially Scandinavian - tourists returning to Thailand had helped the kingdom's tsunami-hit southern islands and coastal areas begin to bounce back.

"In some parts of Thailand ... tourists are coming back even though not everything has returned to normal," de Jong said.

Separately, the Post quoted Sri Lankan tourism official Malraj Kiriella as saying that most hotels in the country are back in business. The report said the number of tourist arrivals jumped by 31 percent on year in March.

Kiriella said Sri Lanka hopes to attract more Chinese tourists because of its Buddhist cultural sites.

The Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami killed at least 127,000 people in Indonesia's Aceh province and more than 40,000 in 10 other countries across the Indian Ocean.