Post-tsunami travellers plan ……_生活Life

post-tsunami travellers plan phuket trip 　　thirty chinese tourists are scheduled to leave for phuket, thailand, on february 9, spending the first day of the lunar year at the renowned tourist destination badly destroyed by the deadly december 26 indian ocean tsunami. 　　the group members will start their five-day trips from shanghai, beijing, and guangzhou in south china's guangdong province. 　　each participated in online bidding dubbed "touring phuket," which is promoting tourism to help restore the economy in the tsunami-hit regions. all the money they spend will be donated in their names to the ravaged region, according to ctrip.com, an on-line travel company. 　　but still, the overall number of tourists going to southeast asian countries, which were the hardest hit, is experiencing a decline during the spring festival holiday. 　　ouyang chaosong, the person in charge of the beijing-based southeast asia division of the china travel service head office, predicted the number of tourists going to southeast asian countries around the holidays will decrease by half. 　　normally, ouyang's company sends 3,000 to 4,000 tourists to southeast asian destinations each year during the festival period. but he said by january 26 only about 1,000 have registered for visits there. 　　signs of a hot season, such as overtime work at travel agencies and additional flight arrangements for tours to southeast asia, have not materialized this year, he said. 　　however, "the worry is fading away gradually," he added. 　　trips to countries like the philippines, cambodia and viet nam have already been fully booked, while those to singapore and malaysia have begun to revive, according to ouyang. 　　"everyone is speaking of showing sympathy (to the victims of the disaster). what we travel agencies can do to show our sympathy is to organize safe tours to such countries," he said. 　　travel agencies are also trying to attract consumers by low prices.