Medical: Pandemic Threat - Tourism Industry Nightmare?

Anyone who is paying careful attention to the media cannot help but note that throughout the world, scientists and doctors alike are warning us about the potential for a world pandemic. This undercurrent of media attention on what is called Swine Flu, the H1N1 virus or Influenza may have major consequences for the world’s tourism and vacation industries. Certainly, if the past is a lesson for the future trends, then it behooves the tourism industry not to panic but to begin to plan now fo...

The swine flu epidemic, announced by the Mexican health secretary on April 23rd, has had a swift and disastrous impact on tourism within Mexico. Mexico City, the epicenter of the outbreak with almost 3,000 suspected cases, became a ghost town as the government closed public schools, movie theatres, restaurants, bars and museums to prevent the spread of the illness while people barricaded themselves in their homes. On April 29th, President Calderon urged everyone to remain in their homes from May...

The H1N1 virus, aka the swine flu, has had a media resurgence and the travel industry seems to be panicking – but is it justified or alarmism? So far airlines have said they will likely bar sick passengers from boarding, offer anti-bacterial wipes and keep blankets and pillows off planes. (Someone should tell them that it’s a virus, not a bacterial infection.) Apparently the threat of the pandemic is so large that passengers are now more likely to hire a charter plane than fly on ...

The global tourism industry is right to be concerned about swine flu and its potential impact on global tourism. We only have to switch the clock back to 2003 to recall the devastating impact of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak on tourism in East and Southeast Asia and Canada. During the SARS outbreak this flu like disease resulted in just under 9,000 people contracting the disease of whom 870 died. Serious an outbreak as it was, in the pantheon of historic epidemics, SARS w...