Bookings still low to areas affected by tsunami

Visitors are flocking to Asian destinations struck by last year’s tsunami, but a full tourism recovery is not expected until sometime next year, a U.N. agency says.

Indonesia, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand are finally experiencing high hotel occupancy rates after months of flagging tourism following the tsunami, according to the U.N. World Tourism Organization.

But even with the increased occupancy rates, bookings to Thailand’s Andaman coast, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are still substantially lower than before the tragedy and it will likely be 2006 before a full recovery takes place.

Recovery at beach resorts hit by the tsunami has been sluggish. Official statistics show arrivals to Thailand’s Phuket still down by 50 percent in August, while October arrivals to the Maldives were down by 23 percent and foreign guest nights along Sri Lanka’s south coast were down by 53 percent in August.

But resorts in all three countries are reporting bookings for December and January between 80 and 90 percent.

Shortage of rooms is also a problem. Phi Phi Island in Thailand only has 400 rooms available compared to 2,000 before the tsunami and in Khao Lak fewer than 500 of the 6,000 rooms have been reopened.