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