The devastating earthquake that hit Indonesia last week has sparked fears that Asia will now face an even bigger battle to get back to normal following the Boxing Day tsunami.
A Hotelbenchmark survey, conducted by financial services advisers Deloitte, showed that post-tsunami hotel occupancy figures in the worst-affected areas of Thailand, such as Phuket, were slashed in the first two months of 2005.
Occupancy rates, which would normally be running at 80%, were generally only about 40%, according to the survey.
Even areas such as Penang and Bali, which were not affected by the tsunami, also struggled.
Marvin Rust, hospitality partner at Deloitte, warned that the Indonesian earthquake last week would exacerbate the problem.
"This is because of tourists' lack of information and understanding as to which holiday destinations were affected. We can expect this week's earthquake to have the same result, with tourist destinations beyond Sumatra and Indonesia also suffering as a result of a lack of understanding of the relative risks of travel to the region."
However, Michael Issenberg, managing director of Accor Asia Pacific, which has 20 hotels in Thailand, said the hotel company had seen occupancy rates four percentage points higher this March than in 2004.
"It would appear that apart from the areas directly affected by the tsunami, there has been little impact on tourism in Asia," he added. "Even Accor's two hotels in Phuket were only 10 percentage points behind last year's occupancy rates. As for the rest of Thailand, our hotels are enjoying some of their best occupancies ever."
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 07 April 2005