Home>News Center>Life
         
 

Post-tsunami travellers plan Phuket trip
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-02-02 08:33

Thirty Chinese tourists are scheduled to leave for Phuket, Thailand, on February 9, spending the first day of the lunar year at the renowned tourist destination badly destroyed by the deadly December 26 Indian Ocean tsunami.


Thirty Chinese tourists are scheduled to leave for Phuket, Thailand, on February 9 to make a Spring Festival holiday. [sohu]
The group members will start their five-day trips from Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province.

Each participated in online bidding dubbed "touring Phuket," which is promoting tourism to help restore the economy in the tsunami-hit regions. All the money they spend will be donated in their names to the ravaged region, according to Ctrip.com, an on-line travel company.

But still, the overall number of tourists going to Southeast Asian countries, which were the hardest hit, is experiencing a decline during the Spring Festival holiday.

Ouyang Chaosong, the person in charge of the Beijing-based Southeast Asia division of the China Travel Service Head Office, predicted the number of tourists going to Southeast Asian countries around the holidays will decrease by half.

Normally, Ouyang's company sends 3,000 to 4,000 tourists to Southeast Asian destinations each year during the festival period. But he said by January 26 only about 1,000 have registered for visits there.

Signs of a hot season, such as overtime work at travel agencies and additional flight arrangements for tours to Southeast Asia, have not materialized this year, he said.

However, "the worry is fading away gradually," he added.

Trips to countries like the Philippines, Cambodia and Viet Nam have already been fully booked, while those to Singapore and Malaysia have begun to revive, according to Ouyang.

"Everyone is speaking of showing sympathy (to the victims of the disaster). What we travel agencies can do to show our sympathy is to organize safe tours to such countries," he said.

Travel agencies are also trying to attract consumers by low prices.

Wang Jian, a senior official of the Guangdong China Travel Service, based in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, said the price of a package tour to Thailand for six days has dropped to less than 2,000 yuan (US$241) from the usual 3,700 yuan (US$447).

He said the impact of the tsunamis is limited for the company due to such efforts. There might be a 10 to 20 per cent shrinkage in the number of tourists going to Southeast Asian countries during the Spring Festival holidays.

Zhang Guangrui, director of the tourism research centre at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, predicted that the disaster will affect not only the coming Spring Festival holidays in mid-January, but also the Labour Day holidays in May.

Both are dubbed "golden weeks" by the tourism sector in China.

The disaster will bring about psychological fears among most people, who will stop going to disaster-hit places, he said, adding that travel agencies will hesitate in making travel plans to such sites.

Meanwhile, it will take a period of time for the ravaged regions and countries to recover and rebuild tourist infrastructure, Zhang said.

More people will go to countries like the Republic of Korea, Japan and Germany instead, he said.

At an international forum held last week in Beijing on rebuilding confidence and charting the road to reconstruction for the post-tsunami period, Zhang Xuechun, senior financial economist of the Asian Development Bank China resident mission, said the impact on tourists is mostly emotional. "But the impact will not last for more than half a year," she predicted.

Ouyang is confident about the future. It is not the first time that the tourism in Southeast Asia is affected by disasters, he said, referring to SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) crisis in 2003 spring.

"The industry's ability to recover is strong," he added.

Disaster-hit countries are also showing confidence that tourists will be back.



Casts promote 'Seoul Raiders' in Beijing
Li Bingbing
'Beyond' puts on farewell concerts
  Today's Top News     Top Life News
 

China shares snap six-day losing streak, up 5.35%

 

   
 

Meningitis outbreak 'Controllable'

 

   
 

All eyes on China at G7 meeting in London

 

   
 

IPR disputes highlight absence of law

 

   
 

Was 'abducted' US soldier in Iraq a toy?

 

   
 

Pope hospitalized for breathing problems

 

   
  Will Lang Ping coach America to play China?
   
  210,000 ideas for Beijing Olympic slogan
   
  Boyfriend arrested for body-carving freak
   
  'Memoirs of a Geisha' finishes filming
   
  Dialects making way for putonghua
   
  Picasso in profusion
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
Phuket to learn from Shanghai on town planning
  Feature  
  Chen Ning Yang, 82, to marry a 28-year-old woman  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 日韩人妻一区二区三区蜜桃视频| 国产婷婷一区二区三区| 日本久久久久亚洲中字幕| 欧洲熟妇色xxxx欧美老妇 | 污污网站在线播放| 国产亚洲精品bt天堂精选| 2021国产成人午夜精品| 宝贝过来趴好张开腿让我看看| 久久天天躁狠狠躁夜夜不卡| 欧美粗大猛烈水多18p| 八戒网站免费观看视频| 骆驼趾美女图片欣赏| 国产色综合久久无码有码| 一区二区三区电影网| 日本高清二三四本2021| 亚洲成AV人片在WWW色猫咪 | 翘臀少妇被扒开屁股日出水爆乳 | 亚洲伊人久久网| 男人j进美女p动态图片| 国产99精品在线观看| 国产浮力第一页草草影院| 国产裸体舞一区二区三区| yy6080午夜一级毛片超清| 日本三级带日本三级带黄首页| 亚洲伊人色欲综合网| 熟妇人妻一区二区三区四区| 四只虎免费永久观看| 香蕉久久综合精品首页| 国产精品乱码一区二区三区| [中文][3d全彩]舞房之夜| 成人区视频爽爽爽爽爽| 久久五月天综合网| 欧美18videos极品massage| 亚洲精品国产专区91在线| 精品日产一区二区三区| 国产亚洲精品美女久久久久| 欧美一区二区三区综合色视频| 国产麻豆天美果冻无码视频 | 一本久道久久综合多人| 放荡性漫画全文免费| 久久国产亚洲电影天堂|