Finnish tour operators evacuate tourists after massive quake off coast of Indonesia
All Finnish travellers are safe
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About 1,600 Finnish tourists were believed to be holidaying on the western coast of Thailand when a 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia yesterday just before midnight local time, triggerring tsunami alerts around the Indian Ocean.
The four Finnish tour operators with travellers in Thailand rapidly began evacuating their customers in the coastal area. The earthquake killed hundreds of people and destroyed buildings on the Sumatra island of Nias. However, no Finnish casualties were reported in Southern Asia. Apparently the earthquake did not trigger a tsunami this time and hence tsunami alerts were soon scaled down.
Aurinkomatkat (Suntours) and Finnmatkat have about 800 travellers in Phuket and Krabi, while Tjäreborg and Detur together have fewer than 200 tourists in the area. Currently, no tours are arranged to the Maldives nor to Sri Lanka.
In addition to the 1,000 or so travellers on package tours, the Foreign Ministry estimates that there are about 600 other Finns in the area.
"It has been estimated that about 20 to 30 % of all tourists in Thailand are travelling on their own", commented Pekka Hyvönen of the Foreign Ministry Monday night.
Rapid action was taken even though no certainty of a potential tsunami was given, said Jukka Mustila from Finnmatkat.
The Foreign Ministry immediately began contacting the missions in the region, said Press Councellor Erja Tikka of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.
The Government's emergency officials, led by State Secretary Risto Volanen, held a meeting Monday night to consider how to respond to the potential disaster. Following the criticism over the handling of the December tsunami, in which more than 170 Finns were among the dead, rapid action was taken and communication between the ministry and tour operators worked seamlessly.
The Foreign Ministry opened an emergency hotline yesterday evening to provide information about the Indonesian earthquake. Around 100 calls were received by midnight. The hotline (+358-10-802266) is open around the clock.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 29.3.2005 - TODAY |
 Finnish tour operators evacuate tourists after massive quake off coast of Indonesia
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