Tourists cancel tours abroad on swine flu fears

      Travel agencies say many booked outbound tours are being cancelled on fears of the influenza A (H1N1) virus, also known as swine flu.
“Many agencies tried to prevent the cancellation, but things have become worse due to spread of the flu in other countries,” said the director of a tourism company.
The Vong Tron Viet Tourism Company in Ho Chi Minh City said they had to delay a tour of 20 people to the US from May 22 to June 10.
The story is repeated by the Perfect Tour Travel Company, also based in HCMC, who had to cancel all tours to Hong Kong in May. Some planned tours to the US have also been cancelled or deferred.
“We are operating in hot water these days,” the company’s director Nguyen The Khai said. “This morning, five of a group of 40 tourists canceled their booked tour to the US. In another group of 40 tourists to Hong Kong, 38 are canceling.”
The company is worried about financial losses as they usually send more than 1,000 tourists to the US every year.
A representative of Vietravel in Hanoi also said they might have to cancel a tour to the US if the spread of the virus in other countries does not subside.
A resident of HCMC said he was yet to decide whether or not to cancel a booked tour to Hong Kong in June, but was concerned about the flu.
“My family used to go abroad in the summer but we may shift to a domestic tour this year,” he said.
Meanwhile, authorities have continued to maintain strict vigil against the entry and spread of the flu in the country.
Every passenger with a higher than normal temperature passing through the airports are quarantined and tested for the virus.
The test results for one overseas Vietnamese arriving at Tan Son Nhat International Airport Friday with a high temperature have not been released yet, but all 15 previous cases have tested negative for influenza A (H1N1), the HCMC Health Department has reported.
The overseas Vietnamese, a 37-yearold woman, had taken a flight from the UK and transited in Hong Kong for three days before arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, the department said.
Since a temperature scanning device has been set up at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport on April 26, a total of 79,305 visitors have been screened including 8,686 arriving from influenza A (H1N1) infected zones.
In Hanoi, passengers at the Noi Bai International Airport are having their temperatures taken manually after automatic scanners broke down, the AFP quoted a Vietnamese health official Friday as saying.
"All three automatic scanners at the airport are broken," said an official from the Hanoi International Health Quarantine Center.
She added that new scanners have been ordered but could not say when they would arrive in Hanoi.
The emergence of the virus, a new strain, has set off fears of a global pandemic.
Preventing influenza A from infecting patients sick with the deadly H5N1 avian flu should be a top priority, especially in Asia, experts said Thursday.
If both viruses end up in the same individual, they could mix genes and mutate into a form that is both highly pathogenic and easily transmitted among humans, said John Oxford, a virologist at London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry.
"The countries of most concern are those where H5 is killing people - Egypt, Indonesia, China, Vietnam - and these are among the countries making gigantic efforts to stop" the influenza A (H1N1) flu, he said.