Airline companies and travel agencies are struggling to keep up with the cancellation requests as they flood in. Tourists are making cancellations not only to the Phuket and Maldives regions that were directly affected by the earthquake, but other Southeast Asian regions like Bangkok and Pattaya that were barely if at all impacted.

Travel agencies reported being inundated with calls all day Tuesday, with Hana Tour, Gukil Travel Agency and Phuket Silla Tour canceling all of their schedules to Phuket until the end of the year, and offering customers refunds

Forty out of 47 people who were scheduled to depart for Phuket through Lotte Tours on Tuesday cancelled their trips that morning, while the remaining seven changed their plans and left for alternative destinations.

The public relations department of Hana Tour said they usually have 200 customers flying to Phuket everyday, but now the agency is asking whether customers want to change destinations. Freedom Travel Service Company said that all travel plans to Phuket until Jan. 5 are being suspended.

Other destinations in Southeast Asia that were not hit by the tsunami are being affected by this catastrophe. Lotte Tour said that the cancellation rate for Southeast Asia had shot up by 20 percent from the normal rate at this time of year, and Phuket Silla Tour said that the number of cancellations for trips near Phuket such as Pattaya increased by 10 percent. Gukil Travel Agency's Southeast Asia Department said that people were trying to avoid the Southeast Asian region as a whole.

Flights to Phuket are departing with empty seats. On Boxing Day, the day of the disaster, Korean Air's flight departing from Incheon for Phuket at 7:30 p.m. left the airport after 114 out of 229 customers who had reserved seats cancelled.

The situation worsened the following day when only 10 people --- family members of missing travelers and travel agencies' staff --- boarded the plane out of the 258 customers who had originally made reservations.

Asiana Airlines, which operates flights from Incheon to Phuket twice a week, faced a similar disaster when only 25 percent of the travelers who had reserved tickets boarded Sunday's plane.

For its flight scheduled for this Wednesday, half of the travelers have changed their plans. Asiana Airlines said that travel agencies in Phuket are requesting local travel companies to scotch all travel schedules to Phuket.

(Im Min-hyuk, imhcool@chosun.com )