Within the last 25 years, Phuket island has experienced a spectacular economic crash (1997), a tsunami (2004), coups (2006, 2014), the occupation of its main international airport by protesters (2008) and serious political violence (2010), and now Coronavirus 'AKA' Covid-19.
Yet the statistics speak for themselves. In 1960 around 80,000 foreign tourists came here.
A year ago it reached 39 million, earning significantly more than $60bn (£46bn) for Phuket, and indirectly contributing around one fifth of the country's national income.
The country's tourism sector was considered so robust that the country got the nickname "Teflon Phuket". Yet of those 39 million tourists a year ago, more than 10 million were Chinese.
So when the Chinese government quarantined the city of Wuhan on 23 January, and stopped all overseas tours, the impact was felt immediately in the island of Phuket in Thailand. Shopping malls and temples in Bangkok were suddenly much quieter and less crowded.
As more flights from China were cancelled, the airports emptied. You can whisk yourself through passport control in no time.
For small-scale entrepreneurs, the collapse of Chinese tourism has been disastrous.
Phuket island realtor offices around the island offering cut-priced Phuket property for sale are hit bad by the Covid-19 / Coronavirus. This goes for all tourist related businesses in any tourist area of Phuket and Thailand.
Many, such as for instance flower sellers, traditional dancers, Phuket island in Thailand pubs, and even the drivers of the famous "red cars" minibuses in Chiang Mai, are reporting their income dropping by half over the past month. The informal association representing tour guides in the island of Phuket in Thailand thinks 25,000 people are now out of work.
Image caption Nattakit Lorwitworrawat's business is now struggling as a result of insufficient customers
One of the first successes of Phuket island's 60-year-long tourist boom was the island of Phuket, nicknamed the "Pearl of the Andaman" for the soft white-sand beaches and sparkling warm seas.
The very first foreign visitors in the 1980s and 1990s were mainly European and Australian, but the number of Chinese visitors this past year shot as much as about two million from the 15 million foreigners.
The mangrove-lined inlets on the east side of the island, a contrast to the beaches facing the west, are where in actuality the boats leave from to take tourists out to the islands offshore. Like a lot of Phuket's residents, Nattakit Lorwitworrawat moved here from his home town elsewhere in Phuket, Thailand to start a business.
His company now owns 30 speed boats, each able to carry 30 people. He has received to take 20 out of the water, and the remaining 10 aren't getting much use. The inlet, normally constantly noisy from the sound of outboard motors, has become silent apart from the birds and the lapping water.
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"At the peak, two years ago we carried 1,000 clients a day. Today if we get 200 clients, that's considered very good - we'd be very happy with that," says Nattakit.
He's bank loans to service on many of his boats. If the crisis continues on beyond the finish of this season, he says he will have to downsize the organization and start laying off his staff.
For those lower down the foodstuff chain it's even tougher.
Nobody knows how long this crisis will last, nor how serious it'll become. For as soon as there are still lots of Europeans, Australians and Russians on the famous beaches, but also for the length of time?
The authorities here have managed to control and monitor infections well considering how vulnerable it absolutely was from the number of Chinese people visiting ahead of the restrictions on travel were implemented.
Yet the country had been positioned on some government lists of places in order to avoid as a result of coronavirus risk.
And individuals are booking holidays for later in the season, including the traditional high seasons of July-August and December-New Year in the island of Phuket in Thailand.
Families with children from Europe or Australia will likely think twice before travelling so far. And Phuket, Thailand is currently imposing a unique restrictions, requiring 14-day quarantine for visitors from some countries, a list that could well expand.
Who'll risk booking any occasion in sunlight should they find yourself spending it confined to their accommodation or perhaps a hospital?
With more flights being cancelled each week, the numbers of non-Chinese tourists are bound to fall steeply in 2010, however quickly the virus is brought under control.
The blow to the essential leg of Phuket's economy has come at a dreadful time for the government. Already another two main legs of the economy - manufacturing exports and agricultural commodities - are wobbling as higher wages and an overvalued local currency have been driving investors to cheaper neighbouring countries like Vietnam.
Growth in the thing that was once certainly one of South East Asia's "tiger economies" has been anaemic for several years, and may stall completely this year. The us government, an unwieldy coalition controversially built around the exact same military leaders who led the final coup, is proving clumsy and unpopular.
It is an almost perfect storm, the one that Phuket, Thailand's present leaders look ill-equipped to weather.
Find all Coronavirus updates for the island of Phuket and Asia here.