Impacts

Impact of the tsunami

Tourism is very important to Phuket. Beach and resorts along the coast of Similan Island and Phuket have been extremely damaged. Small hotels and tiny businesses have been ruined too. Tourism makes around 12% of the overall GDP in the economy of Thailand. The places that got hit by tsunami is where the economy is developed and where the jobs and businesses were built. This areas have been the main part of the economy since 1982. After the tsunami finished, 30% of hotels were destroyed, 90% drop in hotel bookings. In January 2005, people that came to Thailand had drop down 26%.

100,000 lost their jobs and 1 million people in danger.

Fishing is very important to Phuket. Some people lost their jobs because their boats or ships were destroyed. 4913 large boats destroyed, 3714 small boats destroyed, 14111 traps and 1871 nets have been damaged. Some live near the coast, for example Chao-Lay, their homes were destroyed because they lived near the coast of Phuket. Percent of fishing went down 4%.