Have a vacation in Thailand

There seem to be a lot of people disgusted at those who are taking advantage of the current disaster in SE Asia to snag a cheap vacation in the less than devastated areas. I guess they feel that these vacationers should stay home and just send money in to the aid organizations.

I would like to take this opportunity to disagree.

There's already a ton of money flooding into the disaster areas to help with the recovery. But as we've seen in EVERY single country that has received financial aid - charity alone is not enough. It will be business that will allow these people to fully recover. One of the major industries in the affected zones is tourism. What are these people going to do if they have to wait until everything is back to the way it was before the tsunami before anyone considers it "moral" to vacation there? The best thing we can do at a time like this is through a little business their way.

Of course if we really cared about helping these people rebuild (and eliminating poverty all over the world) we'd get rid of the agriculture and textile tarrifs we place on imported items to protect local interests.