At least one Russian travel agency is resuming tourist programs to Thailand's Phuket island, badly hit in the tsunami, Interfax news agency reported.
Russian tourists are already returning to the internationally popular tourist resorts there, less than a month after more than 200,000 people were killed in nations around South and Southeast Asia as a result of a gigantic tsunami that followed an earthquake deep beneath the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26.
Interfax reported that several Russian travel companies would resume sending groups of tourists to Phuket. However, one Moscow official told the news agency that so far only one company had registered to renew those activities.
"Only one company, TEZ Tours, has announced such plans," Irina Tyurina, spokeswoman for the Russian Tourist Industry Union, told Interfax.
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