SARS spells disaster for inbound tourism


SARS spells disaster for inbound tourism, by John Garnault & Julie Robotham - 25th April 2003
(Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald)


The global SARS epidemic has pushed Australia's international tourism industry into its greatest crisis, the Federal Government said yesterday.

The epidemic was likely to render 2003 the worst in a series of disastrous years for the $17billion industry, completely erasing gains that flowed from the Sydney Olympics.

Research by the Australian Tourism Export Council says overseas arrivals dropped by 30per cent in April and forward bookings from east Asian visitors have slowed to a trickle.

Citigroup analysts estimate SARS has caused outward-bound tourist numbers to drop sharply from all major east Asian markets, including 50 per cent from China and 75 per cent from Hong Kong.

A spokesman for the Tourism Minister, Joe Hockey, said SARS had compounded the worst series of disasters the industry had faced, including the September 11 attacks, a global recession, the collapse of Ansett and the Iraq war.

He said international tourists outspend their domestic counterparts by 10 to one.

International arrivals fell by 2 per cent in 2001 and 0.2 per cent last year, and are expected to fall more steeply this year. Before the September 11 attacks, arrivals had grown by 5 to 10 per cent annually since the mid-1980s.

The World Health Organisation yesterday extended its warning against non-essential travel to include new areas of China, and to Toronto, where there have been 267 probable or suspected cases. Canada reacted furiously, saying it would write to the organisation, "formally challenging the WHO's assertion that Toronto is an unsafe place to visit".

The Canadian health department said it had not lost control over the spread of the illnesses: "We have a clear understanding of the specific settings in which this virus has been transmitted in Canada and confidence in the steps being taken to manage infection control."

Meanwhile, scientists from the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg said the coronavirus suspected by the WHO of causing SARS had been found in only 40 per cent of patients it had studied, contradicting Hong Kong research which found the virus in 90 per cent of SARS patients.

But Dr Julie Gerberding, the head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, said it was possible some of the Canadian patients were sick with bugs other than SARS, or that the tests were insufficiently sensitive, or were used too late in the course of the illness.

In other SARS news:

 Only one person in Australia - a nine-year-old NSW boy - remains under investigation for SARS. A 57-year-old woman in Western Australia was yesterday cleared of having the disease.

 The death rate from SARS in Hong Kong has increased to 7.2per cent of reported cases - up from about 5 per cent earlier. Worldwide the death rate is now 5.9 per cent, compared to 4 per cent earlier. Hong Kong experts said the death rate would inevitably climb as more very sick patients died.

 China sealed off the 1200-bed Beijing University People's Hospital, barring anyone from entering or leaving, a day after the WHO warned against travel to the city.

 Vietnam's northern Quang Ninh province, home of the Halong Bay tourist attraction, began barring Chinese tourists at its land border gates and waterways. Hanoi's health ministry has recommended the country seal all its borders with China indefinitely.

Links:

Media

The Sydney Morning Herald

Websites

Australian Tourism Export Council

World Health Organisation

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

Tourism Authority of Thailand

Australian Tourist Commission

Discover Hong Kong