Tourism in Thailand has more recently been impacted by political instability and terrorism. How should (or how did) the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)

respond to the latest crisis?

Warning came too late or not all on 26 December 2004, when an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra triggered a tsunami that struck more than a dozen countries throughout the Indian Ocean. The tsunami had an overwhelming human and physical impact. A total of 223,492 people lost their lives, a further 43,320 are still missing, some 400,000 homes were reduced to rubble, 1.4 million people lost their livelihoods, and more than 3,000 miles of roads and 118,000 fishing boats were damaged or destroyed. The disaster caused US$10 billion in damages in barely 24 hours. The world responded to the plight of the tsunami’s victims on a massive scale and with unprecedented generosity. In the weeks following the disaster, multi-agency assessment teams calculated that approximately $10 billion would be needed to reconstruct the destroyed communities. In response, official and private pledges reached $13.6 billion.
Before the tsunami, tourism in Thailand was at an all-time high, continuing its strong growth with a 20 per cent rise from the previous year with visitor numbers reaching 12 million. However, the tsunami had devastating affects on Thailand’s Andaman coast, leaving more than 8,000 people – about half of them foreign tourists – dead or missing. Damages and losses were close to $2.2 billion, hitting the tourism sector particularly hard. On Ko Phi Phi island, for example, the tsunami killed more than a 1,000 people, wiped out many restaurants and rooms, shattered coral reefs and moved white sand beaches into coconut groves. For Phuket, tourism is a very important source of income and employment. The industry employs about 300,000 people, many from other Thai provinces.