Tsunami impact on tourism limited: Report

Tsunami impact on tourism limited: Report

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, New Delhi

The economic impact of last December's tsunami on travel and tourism was significant, but limited, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said on Friday.

The tsunami, which devastated some popular tourist destinations around the Indian Ocean and killed an estimated 300,000 people, "had a significant, but limited overall impact on the tourism economies", WTTC said in a report on the economic impact of the tsunami in Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

The report was released at the fifth Global Travel and Tourism summit that started in New Delhi on Friday.

"The total impact of the December tsunami on 2005 travel and tourism is expected to approach US$3 billion and cost more than a quarter of a million jobs," said WTTC's executive vice-president Richard Miller.

"In most cases the jobs will be recovered as soon as traffic begins to return to the affected areas. But in the meantime the economies will continue to suffer. Although the impact of the tsunami has been significant, it is generally limited for travel and tourism to a short list of specific destinations."

The impact of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States was 37.5 times larger in monetary terms than the tsunami and 2.8 times larger in terms of impact on employment, WTTC said.

The impact of the SARS epidemic equaled 40 percent of the tsunami monetarily and 10 percent in terms of impact on employment, while the effect of the Bali bombings of 2002 equaled 20 percent of the tsunami impact monetarily and was 1.8 times larger in terms of impact on employment, the report said.

In tsunami-affected Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives "the analyses showed significant declines in visitor exports, while increases were reported in government expenditures and capital investment for marketing, promotion, recovery and rebuilding efforts to assist the industry", WTTC said.

Thailand's tourism industry suffered losses of 16.7 percent or $1.2 billion in its contribution to 2005 GDP.

An estimated 94,780 jobs were lost.

Sri Lanka's travel and tourism sector lost 66,840 jobs and $201 million in industry contribution to 2005 GDP, while the Maldives lost 10,440 jobs and 30.4 percent or $55 million in industry contribution to 2005 GDP and 10,440 jobs, the report said.