It’s not been a great day for the travel industry. Shares in travel firms and airlines have taken a tumble with the spread of swine flu. At present the FCO isn’t advising against travelling to Mexico. This is in contrast to the EU Health Commissioner and the US Federal Government who have both warned against travel to Mexico. This makes life tricky for travel companies who have to tell customers booked for Mexico that they must travel or lose almost all of their money.
Everyone will be looking to the FCO advice, but if they advise against travel to Mexico, then they will be under pressure to extend this advice to other heavily infected countries. In Europe, Spain has a large number of flights to Mexico and has more confirmed cases of swine flu than the rest of Europe combined. The repercussions for the travel industry could be quite devastating.
*UPDATE* The FCO has now warned against travel to Mexico, no doubt prompted by the WHO raising its alert level to 4. This was perhaps inevitable, and clarifies the situation, allowing travellers to claim back any money paid on their insurance. Nevertheless, it’s yet more bad news for the travel business.
