In Mexico, which reported the outbreak first, the death toll has mounted to more than 100. Several Asian countries, including Japan and Singapore, and Australia have started screening travellers, while Spain reported its first case of the influenza on Monday, prompting fears of a pandemic in Europe. Six people in Canada have contracted swine flu and more cases are likely. Barack Obama's administration in the US has declared swine flu a public health emergency after 20 people contracted the disease.
India too has issued an advisory for those visiting the affected nations. It has also put in place a screening mechanism for passengers coming form the affected nations, PTI reported.
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 (IATO)
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.
Indian travel companies are also expecting a change in the flow of tourists to other destinations like Orlando, Hong Kong and Thailand.
"People who have planned their holidays will not sit at home just because there is a flu in some countries. We expect the tourists to still go on outbound vacations, but to safer destinations," said Subhash Goyal, chairman, Stic Travel Group.
