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For their own good Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
The post-Christmas tsunami could not have hit Thailand's southwestern coastal provinces at a worse time for the country's tourism industry.
At the peak of the country's burgeoning tourist season, hundreds of hotels in the resort areas along the Andaman Sea were full of international visitors, even though rates include surcharges for the holidays.
Beaches on the island of Phuket, ranked among the world's best beach destinations, were packed with families from Europe, students from Australia, honeymooners from South Korea.
Then horrific waves rolled in from the sea from across the Indian Ocean, killing more than 1,800 people along the coast of Thailand, nearly half of them tourists. Most resorts on the tiny islands of Khao Lak and Phi Phi, where a James Bond movie was shot, were flattened. And Thai tourism officials, fielding calls from anxious foreigners about missing friends and family members, were left to consider not only the loss of life, but the economic hit the nation's tourism will take from the catastrophe.
Of the dozen nations closest to the epicenter of Sunday's earthquake, Thailand had the biggest international tourist trade at risk. The combination of tropical beaches and third-world prices have made pockets of the country a magnet for an ever-widening array of international travelers. Americans have many more beach resorts to consider and as a result don't choose Thailand as frequently, but for travelers from Germany, Sweden, Russia and many other countries, Thailand is a convenient getaway.
Indonesia's tourism, dampened by terrorist bombings, is heavily concentrated on the island of Bali, which escaped damage. Aceh Province, the area of Sumatra closest to the quake's epicenter, receives so few foreign visitors that the Indonesian tourism board's Web site says, "It is still one of the least-known regions of Indonesia, even among Indonesians themselves."
India, which was aiming for 3-million international visitors this year compared to Thailand's 12-million, reported that the coastal tourist area of Kerala was largely unaffected by the wave and tourist activities were normal.
In Sri Lanka, where more than 22,000 people were killed, tourism is just recovering from years of political unrest. Visitors from neighboring India recently began to outnumber British and German tourists to the island, with 100,000 Indians traveling to Sri Lanka last year. But a story in the Hindustan Times on Wednesday reported that fewer than 10 of the 80 foreigners who died in the disaster in Sri Lanka were Indians. Indian tourists were saved, the paper said, by their preference for inland shopping over sunbathing.
In Malayasia, meanwhile, tourism officials were hoping minor damage in Penang and on coastal islands could be repaired quickly enough to capture international travelers originally headed to Thailand's beaches.
"We are not as badly hit as Phuket in Thailand," Amir Abudul Rahman, president of the Malayasian Association of Hotel Owners told the Malaysian Star. "Our hotels . . . only have to clean up the debris and mud."
Getting tourism back to normal in Thailand won't be as easy. The Bangkok Post said Wednesday that damage to six coastal provinces popular with tourists could result in the loss of 200,000 jobs and 3.2-million fewer visitors in 2005.
Thai tourism suffered in 2003 after the SARS scare, but rebounded nearly 20 percent this year, generating an estimated $10-billion. Tourism accounts for about 6 percent of the country's economy.
The government was expecting to attract 13.5-million international tourists next year, with projected earnings of $11.5-billion.
Now that number will be cut, thanks in part to travel agents like Ket Boe of Carlson Travel in Blaine, Minn. On Wednesday, Boe canceled a trip for a dozen students from Massachusetts Institute of Technology who had planned to take spring break in Phuket. Though more than 40 hotels are reportedly operational, mostly on the eastern side of the island, Boe said the Americans had their hearts set on staying in Patong beach on Phuket's west coast.
"That's really the most beautiful beach," said Boe, who was raised in Thailand and visited Phuket two years ago. "The water is always 75 degrees and you can see lots more fish than you can see in the Caribbean."
The area of Thailand devastated by Sunday's waves has only recently been gaining popularity with U.S. travelers, thanks in part to exposure on reality shows like Survivor. Traditionally, Americans who want beach vacations head to the Caribbean or Hawaii, said Joan Schechter, marketing manager for the Tourism Authority of Thailand in New York City. U.S. travelers to Thailand have tended to head inland, to see temples and tribal handicrafts.
"Americans go to Thailand for the trekking, elephants and rafting," she said. "They may go to Thailand's beaches for a couple of nights. But Canadians and Europeans will go for a week or more."
Schechter said that while Europeans have dominated the long-haul market to Thailand's coastal resorts, the visitor numbers are quickly growing from Russia and neighboring Southeast Asian countries thanks to low-cost fares in the region.
The six Thai provinces hardest hit - Phuket, Krabi, Phangnga, Satun, Ranong and Trang - attract about 9.3-million visitors a year (5-million of them foreigners), generating nearly $2.5-billion in revenue. Schechter said foreigners are attracted by the area's affordability, with hotel prices in Phuket ranging from $100 to more than $500 a night for five-star accommodations.
"It caters to all markets," Schechter said of the resort island. "But with more of a focus on the upscale, with a high concentration of deluxe properties."
Travel agent Boe, who had to cancel a $35-a-night reservation for her MIT students, said Phuket is upgrading its hotel stock, with more high-end bungalows, "like for movie stars."
"The hikers and average people are being moved to the mainland, in areas like Krabi," she said.
Schechter was hopeful that foreign travelers would consider alternate destinations within Thailand rather than abandoning the country .
Samui, for instance, is a highly rated Thai island undamaged by the waves. And although it is the rainy season on Samui, Schechter said daily downpours quickly give way to sun.
"If people want beach resorts, we have plenty of other alternatives," Schechter said. "My main concern is disease. If we can control that, it will be all right."
Information from wire stories was used in this report. Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or 727 892-2996.
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Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
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