Turbulent Time For Phuket Spas

[george]

Turbulent time for Phuket spas

PHUKET: -- Nearly six month since massive tsunami waves struck Thailand's Andaman coastline, spa businesses on the country's southern resort island of Phuket are continuing to shut up shops, according to the head of the local spa association.

Mr. Phokhin Raktaengan yesterday told reporters of the slump facing the island's spa industry, with spa businesses reporting a 60-70 percent drop in income from pre-tsunami levels, largely as a result of the huge decrease in the number of Asian visitors to the island.

Noting that around 20 percent of the island's spa businesses had closed, he warned that more were likely to shut up shops in the near future.

While stressing that the Phuket Spa Association was working hard to promote the island's spa industry, he said that these efforts were largely futile, as the government was not directing its tourism stimulus efforts in the right direction.

--TNA 2005-06-11