ETurbo News Thailand An emergency plan to assist the tourism industries of countries ravaged by the December 26 tsunami was adopted at a special session of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) Executive Council.

Tourism experts representing 42 countries, the private sector and several international organizations drew up the Phuket Action Plan which spells out a comprehensive series of activities intended to restart the region's economically-vital tourism industry--stalled since the tsunami struck.

"We are focusing on the human element in tourism, saving tourism jobs, relaunching small tourism-related businesses, and recovering the visitor flow that makes these economies work," said the WTO secretary-general Francesco Frangialli.

 The main goal of the plan is to speed up recovery of the tourism sector in the affected destinations, by restoring traveler confidence in the region. The plan also aims to help destinations resume normal operations by maximizing the use of existing tourism infrastructure and by helping small tourism-related businesses and employees survive the recovery period.

Other goals include, putting systems in place that strengthen the sustainability of the affected destinations and working with the United Nations system on disaster reduction in the region.

The prime minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, who attended the meeting, applauded the plan, saying: "The livelihood of thousands of people living in the affected areas depends on tourism and their livelihood cannot return to normal if they cannot earn their living from tourism. Our task is to return trust and confidence to the international community of tourism", he added.

Participants in the meeting appealed to the entire donor community to contribute to the implementation of the Phuket Action Plan through financial donations, contribution of materials, or the loan of expert staff.

Generous offers of assistance were pledged by 14 countries attending the meeting (Andorra, Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Republic of Korea, Spain and Turkey).  International organizations, such as the Asia Development Bank, the International Finance Corporation and the United Nations Development Programme also promised support.

 From the private sector, recovery assistance in the area of marketing/communications was pledged by RCI and Visa International, which co-sponsored the meetings along with the Government of the Republic of Korea,

An Emergency Task Force meeting to draft the plan was held on Monday and chaired by the Indian Minister of Tourism Renuka Chowdury.  During that meeting, the Secretary-General called for special attention to travel advisories, urging countries to use them responsibly in accordance with the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and lift them as soon as the situation allows.

The tsunami disrupted the employment of thousands of people, many of them women and young people.  Retraining programs are needed to help them find new jobs or to help update their skills while waiting for their former jobs to become available again.  Likewise, new employees for the tourism industry need to be trained to replace those who perished.  Building leadership capacity and counseling for those in the tourism sector are also needed. However, tourists are once again being welcomed in the affected countries.

Phuket reports about 75 percent of its resorts are operating normally with no signs of the tsunami on several beaches.  In the Maldives, about 80 percent of resorts are operating normally.  Cultural tourism to the interior of Sri Lanka continues although some beach areas remain closed, while Indonesia's main tourism destinations are are largely unaffected.