The lush tropical island of Phuket off southern Thailand, where at least 62 people including foreign tourists were killed, is one of the most popular resorts in Asia, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

Nearly 900 kilometres (560 miles) southwest of Thailand's capital Bangkok, Phuket is dotted with luxury spas and resorts catering to wealthy Westerners looking for sunshine, palm-fringed beaches and warm water.

Dubbed the "Pearl of the South", it is Thailand's largest, most populous and most visited island.

Forty-five minutes away is the tiny idyllic tourist island of Phi Phi off the western Andaman coast, where up to 50 people were killed, chosen as the location for the Hollywood film "The Beach" and is popular for snorkelling and diving.

Nearby Krabi, which also suffered casualties, is on Thailand's southern mainland and touts some of the most beautiful scenery in Asia with white sandy beaches surrounded by limestone cliffs and crystal water.

Further south, off Thailand's Trang province, is the famous limestone Emerald Cave, popular with divers who reach the 80-metre-long grotto by swimming underwater.

A Malaysian couple were killed at the cave when the tsunamis hit and 80 others briefly trapped by the giant waves.

Thailand is Southeast Asia's most popular tourist destination with more than 10 million foreign visitors per year, with the peak period during the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Top Malaysian destinations Penang and Langkawi, north of Thailand, together they lost 29 people in Sunday's tsunamis.

At least eight of the deaths were in the popular northwestern holiday resorts of Penang occurred at the popular Batu Ferringhi beach, which is lined by upscale tourist hotels, officials said.

India's Andaman islands, where two people died and some 100 people were hurt, are also top diving destinations.

And the tiny nation of the Maldives, where a British tourist died from a heart attack, is a luxury destination best known for its tiny coral islands, sandy white beaches and shallow lagoons.

The low-lying Islamic nation of 1,192 coral islands is visited by some 500,000 tourists each year -- nearly twice the country's population.

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