A speed boat packed with up to 40 tourists heading to a &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/accidents/ 21/97/385/14768_tsunami.html ' target=_blank>Thai resort island, Koh Samui, after a full moon all-night beach party capsized Tuesday, killing at least seven people, the police and rescue workers said.
Nearly 20 people were missing. The dead were four foreigners and three Thais, the police said. The accident, just a month after thousands of tourists died in the &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/379/14844_tsunami.html ' target=_blank>Indian Ocean tsunami along Thailand's western shore, may have been caused by overloading, the authorities said.
All the victims, whose bodies were recovered from the Gulf of Thailand, on the eastern shore, appeared to be in their 20's, the police said. No details were available on the foreigners' nationalities, reports the New York Times.
According to Bloomberg, the government is concerned the incident may hurt visitor arrivals to Samui after tourists shifted to islands in the Gulf of Thailand from beach resorts on the Andaman Sea, which was hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami. The giant waves killed more than 5,300 people, half of them foreign tourists, in resorts such as Phuket.
Thailand may lose as much as 30 billion baht ($775 million) in revenue from foreign tourists who will cut their travel to Phuket and Phangnga after the tsunami, Ampon Kittiampon, secretary general of &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/economics/2003/03/15/44455.html ' target=_blank>National Economic and Social Development Board, said Jan. 6 in an interview with Bangkok's Channel 9 television network.
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