One report on CNN (see link below) listed 3,000 Swedish tourists as missing in Thailand. Is this a typo? Were they staying at particular hotels or restaurants or what would explain so many people of one nationality hit by the Tsunami? Why Swedes and not others?
http://cgi.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/tsunami.deaths/index.html
Typo, no. Thailand was apparently a popular vacation spot for them.
This tragedy is truly worldwide. Last time I heard (two days ago?), the U.S. had 2 - 3 thousand missing as well. Other European countries were also reporting missing people into the thousands or high hundreds. That’s all I remember off the top of my head.
*http://news.ft.com/cms/s/72e53980-5ccf-11d9-bb9c-00000e2511c8.html
Also, bear in mind that each country has a different method for counting. Britain has nobody officially ‘missing’, and only dozens ‘officially’ dead: the Foreign Office doesn’t publicly count anybody until they’re accounted for, body identified, family informed, etc. If the British figure was derived from the numbers missing, I’m sure it would be well into three, if not four, figures.
This is currently what CNN is reporting on the status of foreigners in the region:
Australia: 11 dead; the government says it has “grave concerns” about 107 others; another 950 Australians are unaccounted for
Austria: 5 dead, more than 100 missing
Britain: 40 dead
Canada: 4 dead, 13 missing and another 74 unaccounted for
Denmark: 7 dead, 14 missing
Finland: 4 dead; the foreign ministry says another 214 people are missing
France: 22 dead, 18 injured
Germany: 26 dead, hundreds missing. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said he fears “a significant three-digit number of Germans will be among the dead.” Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl was vacationing in Galle, Sri Lanka, when the tsunamis hit and was stranded until rescued by a military helicopter.
Israel: 4 dead, 6 missing
Italy: 14 dead, 600 missing
Japan: 8 dead, according to Sri Lankan foreign minister.
New Zealand: 1 dead, 64 missing
Norway: 21 dead, 462 missing
Portugal: 8 missing; others unaccounted for but not yet listed missing.
Russia: 10 injured, some missing. Foreign ministry has no confirmed fatalities; Thai authorities have said Russians are among the dead.
Singapore: 3 dead
Spain: Foreign Ministry has no confirmations of any deaths; 11 reported missing in Thailand.
Sweden: 52 bodies have been identified. Another 2,915 Swedes are listed as missing. The Swedish prime minister’s office has said the death toll could rise to as many as 1,000. The Thai government believes more than 3,000 people missing in Thailand are Swedish tourists.
Switzerland: 9 dead
Turkey: Turkish Airlines is sending a jet to Maldives to pick up what they believe will be 300 Turkish nationals there.
United States: 15 dead. Secretary of State Colin Powell has cautioned that the large number does not suggest that more than 15 Americans were killed. “It doesn’t mean that they have been lost; it’s just that we have not heard from them,” he told “Late Edition.”
Other: Dead and/or missing also have been reported but unconfirmed by CNN from Belgium, China, South Africa, South Korea and Taiwan.
From here:http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/tsunami.foreign.deaths/index.html
To an American who is used to going to Florida or Southern California for sun during their two weeks off, it seems a little strange. But Europeans get a lot of vacation time and travel to pretty far-flug places pretty regularly. Sweden is dealing with the whole dark-all-the-time thing and I’m betting a lot of people want out, especially for the holidays. Thailand is one of the nicest vacation spots on Earth, and Europeans visit it the way that Americans visit Los Angeles.
The people from certain countries all like to stay near each other, to some extent, as well. Whether this is because of what the tourist is looking for, e.g., others speaking the same native tongue, the same football games on satellite TV, etc., or whether it’s just because a couple of tour operators steer them in the same direction is not totally clear to me. But there did seem to be a large number of Swedes staying at the resorts in Khao Lak which were particularly hard hit.
I read in the Sunday paper that if the number of missing Swedes are found to be dead then it will be the largest natural disaster in Swedish history.
At the time of the disaster there were something like 10,000 UK citizens on holiday in the area effected by the tsunami. Over the last few years there has been a trend among Brits to spend Christmas abroad. I think the total number this Christmas was nearly 1 million . Most of these were nearer home in countries such as Spain and Portugal but I think a fair few were also in Florida.
Being Swedish I can confirm that there are now nearly 3000 Swedes missing after the tsunami. If the list of missing Swedes is not dropping dramatically, for other reasons than confirmed deaths, this is without doubt the worst disaster we experienced in modern times. Sweden is the European country which have been strucken the hardest. After the tsunami disaster 14000 Swedes have returned home to Sweden, a number which suggest how popular Thailand is as a tourist resort for Swedes.
If you’ve ever been to Thailand, there are a LOT of Northern Europeans holidaying there - Brits, Germans, Dutch, Danes, Swedes… Christmas and New Year there are packed out with tourists, especially the popular beach resorts like Phuket and Phi Phi. Compared to a European winter, it’s hot and sunny, the beaches are beautiful, if you have a strong currency the prices are practically free, and, dare I say it, there are OTHER attractions readily available.
I want to take some exception to the last part here. While this is certainly true, it’s more confined to Patong Beach (in Phuket), Pattaya and parts of Bangkok. Khao Lak and Koh Phi-Phi, two of the places hardest hit and with largest loss of life, this is most certainly not the case. That’s one thing that makes this tragedy especially tough – the placest hardest hit were very family oriented places, which the Thai government have been trying to promote over the “OTHER”. The “OTHER” went mostly unscathed.
The Thai government are saying “don’t stay away” they still want you to travel there to keep the economy going. The BBC were saying yesterday that once people get over there they are not only keeping the tourist industry going but a lot of the holiday makers are pitching in and helping with the clean up operation . They are also helping at the local hospitals and giving comfort and help to fellow citizens who are looking for lost relatives.
Hey, it’s a 10 hour flight, abot the same time it’d take us to go to Fla. - another popular resort spot for Swedes during the winter. The closest we have are the Canary Islands, but considering how prizes have developed there during the past ten years, I’m not surprised people are willing to speand an additional 3-4 hours each way to get a nice vacation. Stockholm is about as far north as Anchorage and has a climate similar to Seattle. At winter solstice, the sunrise is at 8.45 a.m and sunset at 2.45 p.m.
Thank you all. Very informative. I did run into lots of Europeans in South Beach in the past and I always wondered why they came here instead of the fine (finer?) beaches in Europe. I guess the seaons and maybe novelty was a factor.
I hope aid to Indonesia makes it and spurs a new internationalism. Although, with our Prez, I doubt it. :rolleyes: 
:mad:
Finer? I don’t think many Europeans would agree. But then I guess familiarity breeds boredom 
- plus, it’s hardly beach weather anywhere in Europe at the moment.
It has just been confirmed by the Foreign Office that the final number of UK deaths will probably be 200.
Really? Seattle has a very mild climate, considering how far north it is.
I’ve not been to Stockholm, but I’ve been to southern Norway several times in the winter, and I can tell you, it’s a LOT colder there than Seattle.
It’s slightly chillier on average, but not much.Right now (7 p.m. local time) it’s 34F degrees, Wednesday will be a bit warmer, going up to around 40F, with slight rain all day long.
Stockholm does get a cold spoell for a couple of weeks in january and february,where the temperature might drop down near 0F, but most of the six months around winter solstice, it stays between 30-50F. The Gulf Stream keeps us fairly warm.
Down here in the south, we get maybe 4 weeks of winter, all in all. It’s a long, wet, overcast fall, followed by a long, wet overcast spring. Sometimes there’s a week of summer too. 2004 was good. We got all of 3 weeks of summer.
Hey, Gaspode, when I was about seventeen I came for a two week trip to play football in Malmö and the surrounding towns, so I always have a soft spot for that area. We were not so good back then, compared to American teams today that are quite competitive. But I got to play in front of a crowd at Malmö stadium before a real match there. Even got to be booed by a stadium full of fans (really a highlight of the trip) and got asked by kids for our autographs, which we found comical.
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And Malmö got to be Swedish champions in football (soccer) last season. We’re very happy. Even though they bood you, you’ve got to play there. i never have.
I probably deserved it. The crowd was generally nice, it was just on one particular play, a bit dangerous… didn’t hurt anyone, though. Good to hear that they made it as champs last year. The national side have done fairly well lately as well.