The last thing the travel industry needed, in the wake of the economic slowdown, was the swine flu pandemic. And as the number of people
succumbing to the disease goes up by the day, it will take some time before many resume travelling.
Sixty-year-old Savitri Verma (name changed) has been in correspondence with her travel agent for more than a month but is still undecided on travelling to London in fear of catching the H1N1 infection. "I and my husband were planning to visit our daughter in London, but I'm scared to catch the flu. It's a natural fear,'' she said. Her's is not a lone case, of late several group tours have cancelled their bookings. "Seven-eight of us had planned a trip to Thailand, but decided to cancel the booking this month because of the epidemic. We prefer to travel later with a more relaxed mind when things settle down,'' said Meena Arora, a housewife.
Outbound travel has been severely affected registering a drop of about 15-20% with travellers cancelling their bookings to countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Hongkong, China, Singapore, Australia, US and UK, etc. Even the dream international holiday packages have failed to lure travellers in this lean period. Aanchal, a travel agent of N Chirag Travels, said, "The swine flu scare has hit outbound travel. Recently, I cancelled the booking for a group of 20 people who were supposed to go to Bangkok.''
D'Pauls Travel Agency is offering special packages for South East Asian countries, including accommodation and other perks, at dirt cheap prices starting from Rs 15,000 for the past three months. However, it has hardly seen any takers. Said Amit Dua, manager of D'Pauls Travel Agency: "Around 100-120 people who were to travel to Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand cancelled their booking with us in August because of swine flu. The number of people enquiring about travel packages has also dropped drastically. In recent months, only our Independence Day weekend package was a hit, with around 500 people availing of it.''
Even student traffic that normally registers an increase during July-August when the new academic session begins has been affected. Said Sunil Lakhwara of Khanna Travels in CP, "Students' travel to Australia has been hit. There has been a dip of 20% in outbound travel. If 20 people were travelling during this time last year, there are only around five travellers this time.''
Meanwhile, to play it safe more and more travellers are opting for medical insurance. International travellers even for short trips are taking travel insurances. "Earlier people would never insist for a travel insurance. But since the spread of swine flu, people are asking for insurance even before getting tickets booked,'' said Pratima Bhalla, an operation manager at India International Voyages Private Ltd.
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