He later blamed the disaster on 'natural unknown springs' and later ran a media campaign to maintain his position as NCB chairman ahead of the inquiry report.
Tourism experts are confident that travel will recover faster from the tsunami than from SARS. Fear of an unknown disease is far tougher to manage than a rare natural disaster, however horrific.
Along with concern and care for the still unknown number of victims of Hurricane Katrina, there remains a national sense of outrage at the bungled response to the disaster.