Hotel owners fear tourists will opt for other destinations after resorts were wiped out on the south coast of Samoa's main island in last week's disaster.

Nynette Sass, from the Samoa Hotel Association, said she feared the industry would be hit hard.

"Many cancellations will be like a second tsunami for us," she said.

The expected drop-off will be keenly felt in the South Pacific country, which depends on tourism for 25 percent of its gross domestic product, earning about 120 million US dollars a year.

As recently as July, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi credited the industry, based on the attractions of tropical, palm-fringed beaches and a relaxed island lifestyle, with shielding Samoa from the global economic crisis.

Visitor numbers more than doubled in the past decade -- helped partly by political troubles in fellow resort destination Fiji -- with 125,000 arrivals in 2008 mainly from New Zealand, Australia, North America and American Samoa.

In a bid to mitigate the fall-out, the Samoan Tourism Authority (STA) stressed that other parts of Upolu, the main island, were unaffected despite widespread destruction on the south coast.

"Coastal areas of Samoa sustained damages with extensive destruction mainly to the south-southeastern coast of Upolu island," it said.

"The rest of the hotels and beach fale (bungalow) accommodation properties throughout the country are fully functional and continuing normal operations."

The STA told AFP it had suspended international marketing "in consideration of the situation at hand" and had started work with the National Beautification Committee to clean up hard-hit areas.

But efforts to restore the southern resorts and beach huts could face trouble with fearful residents reluctant to return to their flattened coastal villages, despite ties that stretch back generations.

"Last night our (village's) family members talked about they're hoping to leave that place and they are hoping to build again somewhere else," said Tavaga Failauga Gase, chief of former resort village Lalomanu.

"They will leave that place forever," he said.

The tourism authority listed 18 resorts and family-run properties that were wiped out by the killer waves, which smashed houses and chalets, sucked people out to sea and littered pristine beaches with debris.

Some owners, such as Fao Fao Fales' Koroseta Legalo, are determined to return and rebuild but they will keep their families up on the hill, fearing a repeat of the disaster.

In a sign of defiance the Taufua family, which lost 13 members, salvaged the sign from their thriving beach huts and hoisted it on the devastated site.

Many hut-owners told AFP it was too soon to decide about rebuilding, but village chief Gase said most no longer considered the beach safe.

"I think that especially those who lost their families, we are taking a new plan for the future," he said.

"First we have to build temporary homes. Then we will make our community again up here, in the hills."

A total of 136 people have been confirmed dead in Samoa, another 32 in American Samoa and nine in Tonga in the wake of the tsunami that struck on September 29.

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