Swine Flu Hits Travel Industry

With the raised influenza pandemic level to phase four the travel industry may be feeling the heat during this summers travel season. This however has not stopped some tourist, while others are saying that the outbreak has been blown out of proportion. Here's more on the story.
The streets of Catalonia, Spain continue to be filled with tourists.

This in light of 10 suspected cases of swine flu in the region, and one man that has tested positive for the virus.

At the city's main airport, El Prat on Tuesday, only a handful of people could be seen wearing the white masks Fears of human-to-human transmission of the disease have caused many countries to issue advisories but many tourists are confident in travelling abroad.

[Jerry Ernst, Tourist]
"You have to think the relative number of cases, it is not a huge number when you take all of the people around the world into consideration but I did notice Asian people who have had the experience with this kind of thing before had the masks on."

In a time when the travel industry is already caught in the midst of a global recession, the swine flu outbreak has reminded some investors of the SARS epidemic in Asia, the fear now is that it will takes its toll - resulting in battered airline stocks in foreign trading.

The World Health Organization raised its level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 3 to phase 4, after the organization's Emergency Committee investigated outbreaks in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The hardest hit has been Mexico with a total of 152 people killed by the virus but many Mexican people like Marcelo Rodriguez, are saying that the outbreak is not as severe as reported.

[Marcelo Rodriguez, Mexican Resident]
"There were doctors handing out masks and they asked me if I had a fever or a cough but I think that everything is being blown out of proportion."

European Union officials and the UK Foreign Office have advised against all but essential travel to Mexico in the wake of the outbreak. This, at a time when airlines are expected to post combined losses of nearly five billion dollars worldwide in 2009, according to industry estimates.

With the swine flu outbreak threatening to shut down global travel, it remains to be seen if it's going to be a cruel summer for airlines.

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News & Politics

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• ntd
• Swine flu
• Travel industry
• Pandemic
• Virus
• WHO
• Tourist
• Spain
• El Prat
• Disease