Natural disasters rank with disease, terrorism as tourism threats

SYDNEY: Asia’s tsunami disaster shows governments need to treat the threat to holidaymakers from natural disasters as seriously as those from terrorism and disease if they wish to keep earning tourist dollars, a tourism expert said Tuesday. As resorts in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives continued counting the dead from the tidal waves that followed Sunday’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Jeff Wilks, professor of tourism at the University of Queensland in Australia, drew a parallel with the 2003 SARS crisis. The tourism industry’s focus on selling dreams did not prepare it well to cope when things go wrong, Wilks told AFP. afp

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