Cleanup is currently under way on Koh Samet, as volunteers attempt to scrub away some of the oil that has besmirched the Thai island’s famed pearl-white beaches. Some 50,000 L of crude leaked into the picturesque Thai Gulf on July 27, according to contrite oil giant PTT Global Chemical, with a large amount drifting over to the popular tourist destination. But despite reports of horrified vacationers fleeing in droves and a disastrous effect on the nation’s hospitality industry, in truth the current predicament is just one of a number of tourism calamities Thailand has suffered in recent years. And if the past is anything to go by, it will survive this one as it has survived the others.