Tourists' role in tsunami recovery

Tourists' role in tsunami recovery

It is easy to criticize the tourists at Phuket and other
Indian Ocean resorts who went back to the beach a few days after
the tsunami and lay in the sun within sight of the devastation.

Those who ask these questions are themselves a comfortable
distance from the disaster. The same sentiments are not being
heard from residents of the damaged resorts or their governments.
Quite the contrary, the Thai authorities, for example, are
anxious to ensure that tourists are not discouraged from
returning wherever it is practicable.

Resorts swamped by the tsunamis need aid right now but not for
too long. They have the spirit of enterprise and they need
customers more than compassion. For them, leisure-seekers must
return. Life must go on.

-- The New Zealand Herald, Auckland