Haunted beaches

Phuket, Thailand

Fear of ghosts is keeping Asian tourists from returning to tsunami-stricken areas, travel industry experts said this week. Many Asian societies believe that if the dead are not properly buried, their agitated souls will wander the world. Travel agents from China, Taiwan, and South Korea said the superstition was leading travelers to avoid once-popular Thai beaches. Last December’s massive tsunami killed some 8,000 people in southwestern Thailand alone, and most of the bodies were lost at sea. “The number of deaths in the tsunami was just too high,” said Eric Wu of the Taipei Association of Travel Agents, “so there is a strong psychological element.”

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