Thai tourist trade says please come visit James Bond Island

Parking is a breeze Tuesday afternoon on Bang La Road. This crazy-quilt avenue of tourist shops, restaurants and bars is usually clogged with motor scooters, tourists and street vendors. But two weeks after a tsunami washed over the resort towns of Phuket (poo-KET) Island, it's hard to tell it is high season at Patong Beach - reports USAToday

"Usually the street is full of laughter, and there are so many people it's hard to walk," says Sareena Sethi, who owns Creative Fashion Gallery, a tailor shop that is popular with tour groups in search of custom-made clothing. Her clients have seen the physical destruction in the news. They have e-mailed from Europe and elsewhere to ask how they can help.

"I tell them the best way to contribute to Phuket is to book your holiday here," Sethi says. "We've still not lost hope. We think the tourists will come back again."

From the news coverage, it would appear that all of southern Thailand has been swept out to sea. But hundreds of restaurants, hotels and shops survived unscathed and are fully operational — and largely empty. Reservations aren't necessary at the best restaurants. Taxis and "tuk tuk" buses are idle. Stacks of tourist T-shirts remain neatly folded late into the evening.

From the smallest vendors to the luxury hotel managers, the message is the same: Don't send clothes. Don't send food. Just, please, come for a visit.

"We need the word to get out that not all of Phuket was destroyed," says Craig Smith, general manager of the JW Marriott Phuket Resort & Spa on Mai Khao Beach. "If you want to help Thailand, go on vacation."

The tsunami did hit the Marriott, but there is little sign of damage now. The wave washed over the pool area of the beachfront hotel, pushing chaise longues, umbrellas and boulders into the pool and ripping out flower beds. The chaise longues have been righted and the flowers replanted. A few hotel guests relax at the pool.

The hotel has had 3,000 room night cancellations since the tsunami. It is half full, mainly because of a large contingent of German police who are providing relief. People are beginning to make reservations for April and May, Smith says.

Smith, who has met regularly with other resort managers since the tsunami, says 90% of the hotels are up and running, but with 20% occupancy at a time when they usually would be full. "Everyone is feeling a little panicky," he says.

Although business is bad, Marriott and most of the other luxury hotels are big enough to absorb the loss. Marriott won't lay off its 650 workers, Smith says. But he and his fellow hotel managers are worried for the smaller vendors.

"If tourism doesn't come back to Phuket, people will be hurt," says Dominique Lapointe, general manager of Le Royal Meridien Phuket Yacht Club on Nai Harn Beach. The Meridien's beach restaurant was slightly damaged and is closed for repairs, but the rest of the hotel is operating.

"Some of the smaller hotels and privately owned businesses cannot afford it," Lapointe says. "We are screaming and shouting for everyone to come back."

Before the tsunami, Jongkolwan "Koy" Saekua, 37, sold 30 to 50 tours each day to Phi Phi and James Bond Island from her kiosk on the beach. This week, relocated downtown outside an Internet cafe, she's lucky if she sells 10 tours a day. If business doesn't pick up, she'll have to close at the end of the month. "Tell the tourists it's not dangerous here. Patong is better than before. The water is cleaner than before the tsunami," Saekua says.

Anucha Srikitraporm sells Polaroid photos of tourists posing with his sea hawks and eagles from the Kata Beach viewing point. Usually he snaps 20 photos a day. On Tuesday, he sold two.

"It's very bad, very sad and very quiet," Srikitraporm says.

The Thai tourism authority is encouraging tourism to all resort areas except the Phi Phi Islands and Khao Lak. It even touts the "cleansing effect" of the tsunami on the beaches. According to the authority, Surin Beach suffered almost no damage and "looks stunning."

"Today, Laem Sing Beach was decked out with loungers and umbrellas. Business as usual — but cleaner," said a statement from the tourism authority. "Patong Beach along the beach road and small roads leading off were badly affected. ... However, behind the beach road, and in the main entertainment area, things are either back to normal or very close. ... And Patong Beach looks pristine in a way most cannot remember!"

Despite the optimistic pitch from tourism officials, visiting Phuket and the more heavily hit Khao Lak resort area north of Phuket can be disconcerting. Khao Lak, in particular, is decimated. The newly built hotels, shopping centers and restaurants in Thailand's newest resort area are rubble. The surviving hotels are surrounded by tableaux of destruction — the contents of a tourist suitcase scattered across a field, lakes clogged with lumber and smashed cars, and landscaping swept away.

The quaint shops along the main road have been replaced by reminders of tragedy. Coffins are stacked high at the picturesque temples; locals wear surgical masks as they ride their motor scooters into town. There also is the chance that workers clearing debris will unearth corpses.

In Phuket, too, there is ample evidence of the tsunami's destruction. The sidewalks at Patong Beach are collapsing, and many of the beachfront stores have been gutted. Each day, workers make remarkable progress, sweeping away the wreckage, restocking stores and opening for business. Officials say Phuket can handle tourists now, and Khao Lak will be ready soon. There have been no reports of communicable diseases. Phones, electricity, water and hospitals are operating fully.

Kamala Beach in Phuket will be ready for tourists in a few weeks and will have rebuilt the damage in two or three months, says Satchaphol Thongsom, chief administrator for the Kamala sub-district.

"Tourists think it'll be two or three years, but it won't," Thongsom says. "We have to be quick to rebuild. We are going to promote outside the country to show we are ready to receive tourists."

The more expensive hotels, sheltered in the cove, survived without a scratch. But the tsunami leveled one of the more affordable hotels and killed three monks at the Geron Tom Wat, a Buddhist temple on Kamala Beach. Tailor shops, money exchanges and souvenir shops were gutted.

"People got a little bit worried that they'll be coming to a disaster area, but things have been put back together quite rapidly," Lapointe says. "If you look at the beach in Patong, you wouldn't know what happened. They would see what Patong looked like 20 years ago, with a clear beach and a clear sea."

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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