The Indian travel and hospitality industry is keeping its fingers crossed as the outbreak is coinciding with the peak outbound travel season.
"This is the peak season for outbound travel and tourist visits to these destinations may come down by 10-20 per cent in the coming weeks," said Vijay Thakur, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators.
India's inbound tourism sector was badly impacted in November last year when Mumbai was attacked by terrorists. Almost 60 per cent of the bookings were cancelled by foreign tourists as many of the countries had issued advisories against travelling to India.
"I feel that the developed countries will deal with the swine flu much better than the way South Asian countries dealt with the bird flu a few years earlier. We hope the situation will be quickly brought under control," said Sachin Bhatia, COO, makemytrip.com.
The outbreak also coincides with the student travel season, when a lot of students from India travel to the US, New Zealand and Canada for higher studies. "The coming weeks are likely to stop Indian students from travelling to these destinations," Thakur said.
Image: A woman walks with a sign around her neck that reads 'Immune' in Mexico City's main square. | Photograph: Daniel Aguilar/Reuters
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