Ebola Outbreak Leads To Millions Of Cancelled Africa Trips
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More people are opting not to visit Africa because of the recent Ebola outbreak. Many of them are cancelling their trips including to areas that are thousands of millions from the closest community infected with the virus.
According to tour operators, the majority of the cancellations is coming from Asia; however, people in Brazil, Europe and the United States who have also cancelled or postponed trips to the area.
Hammes Boshoff, ERM Tours managing director, said a significant number of cancellations are from Asia, and groups that do a lot of travel have seen numbers drop. ERM Tours, which is based in Johannesburg, sets up travel to southern African countries.
Boshoff said 80 percent of the Asian customers have cancelled trips for the next three months, such as a group that books 1,500 visitors from Thailand that’s worth 12 million rand.
He said the problem stems from customers seeing Africa as one country. Boshoff said he often tries explaining that America and Europe are closer to the outbreak than South Africa is. Agents said Asians who lived through both the deadly Sars epidemic and H1N1 flu are not willing to take chances.
To date, the Ebola virus, which has a 90 percent kill rate, has killed over 1,200 people. Cases have been reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone along with a tiny outbreak in the country of Nigeria and a suspected case in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to the World Health Organizations, the majority of infects in the West African states are found in communities where people are taking care of family members or friends who are sick or when the strict infection prevention and control measures have not been followed for both burial ceremonies and funerals.
Transmissions also takes place in the different health care settings – patients, healthcare workers and other people who have come into contact with an infected person and have no protective gear.
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