Observer Leader
The tools of the modern media mean that connection can be expressed with an immediacy that would seem extraordinary to any other generation, allowing us to witness what the first reporters on the scene were able to see, in particular through the superb journalism of the world's media, and share an immediate sense of global grief.
John Aglionby - Jakarta-based Guardian-Observer correspondent
Looking at the landscape that was once Leupueng I was suddenly angry: there was obsessional attention being paid to perhaps a few thousand European holidaymakers who had died elsewhere when tens of thousands of people had perished here on Sumatra's (north)
west coast.
Observer Travel
As the extent of the devastation wreaked by the tsunami unfolds, many of us are having to decide whether going ahead with planned holidays will help or hinder the local people.
Observer Review
The new World Service series, Adventures in the Tourist Trade, was obviously recorded before the tsunami disaster. It will be interesting to see if they drop the final destination in the series, Thailand.
Last week the spotlight was Faliraki, on the Greek island of Rhodes, whose reputation for clubbing, binge-drinking and sex makes Benidorm look like Frinton-on-Sea. Following the deaths of two British holidaymakers last year, tourism to the island is down by 50 per cent.
In the light of what has happened to all those Indian Ocean resorts destroyed last week, the hotel and bar owners of Rhodes should be grateful for small mercies.
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