Phuket, Thailand  - Finance ministers from South-east and East Asia met Sunday on the Thai tourist island of Phuket to try to come up with joint measures to tackle the effects on the region of the global economic slide.

Although institutional investors in East Asia generally stayed away from the kind of financial instruments that led to the current economic crisis in the West, the countries of the region have already experienced dramatic falls in volumes of exports to the West, with further drops expected.

Phuket, Thailand - Now is the time for a cheap holiday in Phuket, Thailand's leading beach resort.

Tourism is the number one industry on Phuket, swelling the island's 350,000 official population to more than 5 million each year. More than 48 per cent of these tourists come from Europe.

There was apprehension on the island in November that numbers would drop as a result of the world economic crisis, but future bookings looked good until anti-government protestors in Bangkok closed the two international airports from November 26 to December 3.

Phuket, Thailand – They were flying to the “paradise isle” in southern Thailand to have a short break, but they never knew that they would be lost forever in the paradise island.

However, Millie Furlong, a Canadian waitress and her Thai boyfriend were fortunate enough to come virtually unscathed from a plane crash that killed 88 people on the resort island of Phuket. They were chanting loads of prayers while they were being taken to hospital.