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| Phuket beach
before the Boxing Day
tsunami | |
A powerful earthquake in the Indian Ocean, so soon after the Boxing Day tsunami, will be a big
setback for the region's plans to revive tourism.
An earthquake 125 miles off the coast of the Indonesian island Sumatra
triggered tsunami warnings.
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India issued tsunami warnings, but
fears of a tsunami seemed to subside after around three hours and
they were scaled down.
The earthquake struck at 16:09 GMT at a magnitude of 8.7. This was
11:09pm local time. There were reports of many deaths in the Indonesian
island of Nias, south of the earthquake's epicentre.
Tourism in the region is likely to be affected whether or not the
earthquake leads to tsunamis.
"As a direct result of the (Boxing Day) tsunami there is a risk that 9%
of international travellers planning a holiday in 2005 have switched their
travel plans to other regions," says a report published earlier this
month.
The "Post-Tsunami global travel intentions" report, commissioned by the
intergovernmental World Tourism Organisation (WTO), highlights how those
worst affected by the tsunami have also been the ones hit by the sharpest
falls in visitor numbers.
"Since the tsunami disaster, there has been a significant drop in
international travel to affected tourist destinations such as Phuket in
Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives," says James Murray, executive with
Visa International Asia Pacific, which co-authored the report.
（Agencies) |
去年圣誕節次日爆發的海嘯剛剛平息，印度洋海域又發生了一場強烈地震，使該地區旅游業的復興計劃嚴重受挫。
此次地震發生在距印尼蘇門答臘島海岸125英里處，還引發了海嘯警報。
印度尼西亞、斯里蘭卡、泰國和印度等國都發布了海嘯警報，但大約三小時后海嘯引起的恐慌漸漸平息，警報也逐步解除了。
地震發生在格林尼治標準時間16點零9分，當地時間晚上11點零9分，震級為里氏8.7級。位于震中南部的印尼尼亞斯島報告有大量人員死亡。
不管地震是否會導致海嘯，該地區的旅游業都有可能受到影響。
本月初發布的一份報告指出：“12月26日的海嘯造成的直接影響是，大約有9%的外國游客為避免風險調整了2005年的度假計劃，改變了旅游目的地。”
這份名為《海嘯后全球旅行意向》的報告是由政府間國際組織“世界旅游組織”負責制作的，報告強調，那些受海嘯影響最嚴重的地區也是旅游者數量下跌最慘的地方。
“自從海嘯災難發生后，那些遭襲的旅游勝地的國際旅游事業出現了大滑坡，如泰國的普吉島，斯里蘭卡和馬爾代夫群島。”亞太地區國際簽證處主管人員、報告合著者詹姆士·默里說。
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2005-03-30 10:16
