PHUKET, Thailand (AFP) Italy will host a tourism conference next month aimed at assuring tour operators and agents that tsunami-hit destinations in Asia are safe, Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said recently on a visit to Phuket.
The gathering will convene on Feb. 12 in Milan and coincide with an international trade fair in the city that will be packed with tour operators, Fini told his Thai counterpart Surakiart Sathirathai in talks here.
The proposal was accepted, and invitations were extended to all countries that were affected by the tsunami, ministry spokesman Pasquale Terracciano said.
They will be able to reassure the tourist operators that everything is in place again, its safe again to come here, he said, citing Fini.
The December 26 disaster left nearly 220,000 people dead, and sent tourism a vital industry for many of the affected countries into a tailspin.
Phuket alone is estimated to be losing 10 million dollars a day because of the tsunami. The island has received some 20,000 cancellations, according to the tourism authority, and hotel occupancy has fallen to 15 percent.
Thousands of foreign tourists were killed, mainly in Thailand, and concern has swelled that with no tsunami early warning system in place coastal areas were unprepared to cope with such a natural disaster.
|
