Something just does not seem right with the numbers. Sweden is missing up to 5000 people for a country with a population of around 9 million. For the same percentage, America would/should be missing around 160,000.
For Swedes to travel to the Andaman Sea resort areas, they must travel farther than many other beach resorts (like the entire Mediterranean, Northern Africa, South Africa and Florida/Bahamas/Mexico).
So what is the huge draw for such a large portion of a county's population to travel so far from home bypassing much closer resort areas?
I don't think the numbers are strange, the information I had was 30 000 swedish tourists in the struck area, and 5000 of them missing according to this article. The latest in swedish media is 3500 missing though, 59 confirmed dead.
The reason so many go to Phuket?
-It's very cheap.
-It's "in".
-It's relatively safe, clean and family friendly.
-Enough swedes travel there to have chartered planes for tourists going there directly. (Makes it even cheaper)
Even though Florida is closer, it's a lot more expensive.
As for the Mediterranean, it's simply too cold for beach vacation at this time of year.
My neighbours, a couple who are nurses and have a 4 year old daughter were supposed to travel to Phuket today, but now they cancelled it, of course, I'm just so happy they didn't go a week earlier.