AIBU to ask whether you have cancelled or postponed travel/holiday due to Coronavirus

[croon979]

Up until this weekend I was relatively relaxed about Coronavirus. However, I was due to go to Dublin with work this week for a conference and my organization (global business) has temporarily banned attendance at conferences and all non- essential business travel due to Coronavirus.

It has caused me to read up a bit more about it and I am feeling a bit more anxious about it all. I am a chronic asthmatic very prone to chest infections which usually result in one hospital visit a year.

I am meant to be going to Lanzarote with my family including mum, brother, my husband and children for holiday in early April, a little over a month away. I see there is now a confirmed case in Tenerife!

I mentioned to my family that we may need to keep an eye on it and could need to cancel postpone if things escalate. Most thought this was an overreaction. Maybe it is. I wasn’t saying we definitely should but just wanted to put on their radar that we may need to.

Has anyone else postponed travel or holiday plans in light of this virus?

We are not booking anything until things settle down

Due to go to Venice tomorrow for a long weekend and have postponed. Hotel have agreed to allow us to go later in the year when things have settled down. Need to sort flights now though BA announced yesterday that passengers can reschedule flights to northern Italy so hopefully we will just go later in the year. Trying to now find somewhere in the UK for a long weekend. Not as easy as it sounds with such short notice.

Due to be away in France on a work trip in a couple of weeks so keeping an eye on what’s happening with that also.

Should have added that we weren’t worried so much about getting ill while in Venice but the threat of quarantine there or here for a couple of weeks was the decision maker.

We're doing Thailand and Singapore for our honeymoon in May. If the plane is still going we will be going!

One of the newly announced cases in England which has tested positive apparently came from Tenerife 😢

Link: news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-two-people-who-returned-from-italy-and-tenerife-test-positive-in-uk-11944283

The world health organisation said in 2006 that to stop a virus spreading and becoming a pandemic,preventive measures should be in place at the first sign of an outbreak, these include banning flights from infected countries and putting people entering a country from an infected country into isolation.The article went onto say that this was a cheaper option in the long run than not acting and implementing the procedures of flight bans and isolation...so they wrote an article in 2006 saying what they should do ,but they knew about this virus months ago and did not follow their own advice....

Postponing any travel, by air, seems like a no-brainer to me. I think some people haven’t grasped the seriousness of this global crisis.

I thought we would be OK going to Wales as we would be going by car. DH has persuaded me that we shouldn't risk it even in a self catering holiday let. This virus can be picked up from surfaces and toilets, in holiday lets they often just go in, do a quick sweep around, empty the bins and change the bedding. That's hardly deep clean mode and what if cleaners get ill or don't fancy it, the cleaning might be even worse than usual?

The more I think about it he's right. I doubt I'd get a wink's sleep wondering who had been sneezing and coughing in that bed the week before. Sitting on that toilet etc

Plus we would be using public toilets when out and about and meeting meeting who have travelled from anywhere in the world.

Holidays, even in the UK this year are definitely out for us. Why risk it? I think this is the year to stay at home and have DH do some work on the kitchen!

Are others worried about holiday lets in the UK?

Why am I not more worried about this? I think it’s inevitable it will sweep the globe. As said up thread, the moment people were allowed to continue to travel it was inevitable. Humans are so bloody stupid.

I have a holiday booked to France in the summer and it wouldn’t surprise me if that didn’t happen

But no, I’m not worried about UK holiday lets in the slightest and have two booked. I am much more likely to pick this up at work or the train

Nope, not remotely worried about holiday lets. They're no riskier than touching money, or the things you buy in your local supermarket, etc etc.

I’m not overly worried about Corona...but we’ve recently priced up 5 day’s in Disneyland Paris in November and were about to book it, but the recent events have made us pause.

The offer I’ve seen is on until July anyway so we’ve decided to wait and see what happens for a bit before booking.

Not necessarily because I’m scared of us catching it (although obviously I’d rather not!) but because...who knows? If it gets big in France perhaps they’ll stop ferries. Perhaps there’ll be an outbreak in DLP and they’ll close the whole place down for a couple of months.

Obviously this could happen between July and November anyway but for the minute we’re waiting.

Plus, selfishly, a part of me is wondering how hard travel and tourism will be hit generally and it crossed my mind that prices may also drop so if there’s no rush it’s worth waiting just for that.

@croon979
They did not know about the virus months ago.
Some countries did stop entry from China eg Australia from 1st Feb only allowed Australian citizens and those with permanent residency to enter the country. Similarly HK introduced compulsory 14 day quarantine for people entering from mainland China, effectively closing their border and reducing the spread of infection.
The UK has been slow to take any action eg no temp checks at Heathrow - I flew in from HK two weeks ago and there were mainland Chinese on the plane.

It's essential that you eat but not essential that you go on holiday.

There is a lot in the media about it mainly affecting old people with existing conditions but that is because they are the weakest so will obviously die first. However lots of young and fit medical staff have also died after them.

Also they are saying SARS was worse but only killed 2%. That figure was calculated at the end, when they knew how many had died or recovered. The 10's of 1000's infected don't add the this death rate until the either die or recover. This spreads easier than SARS.

Another problem with the virus is that it seems to be mutating and people who had recovered are testing positive a second time, in China and Japan.

I am not risking an holiday of any description, it's just not worth putting loved ones in unnecessary danger.

Hmmm I don’t reckon we will end up going on our Easter holiday - got a Disney in Florida in October so sincerely hope that we have more clarity before then

I do feel that the actual figures must be much higher than is being reported

Yes I agree. It's been estimated that 80% of people infected have mild symptoms, so most of them probably wouldn't even realise they'd got it. Someone on R4 this morning was saying that given the death toll in Italy, plus the fact that the authorities can't figure out who their patient zero is, suggests that 400 cases is a huge under-estimate. Chances are that coronavirus has been present there for weeks without anyone realising and he estimated over 1000 cases.

One of the newly announced cases in England which has tested positive apparently came from Tenerife 😢

That person had been staying at the hotel that got locked down, but she left before they locked it down. Authorities yesterday were trying to trace the people who had done that and presumably that's why she got tested. Lanzarote and Tenerife are actually quite far apart so I don't think the cases in Tenerife are a particular risk to tourists in Lanzarote.

Lady at chemists this morning her daughters family have cancelled a holiday and lost all their money. Do not know where though.

We are hopefully going to northern Spain for May half term.
Hoping the worst will be over by then. I'm not worried about getting the virus but would be worried about being trapped abroad.

Yes trapped aboard would be bad. Have really felt for the people in that Tenerife hotel

We were looking to go abroad for a short break soon, but I told DH I didn't want to take the risk of being at an airport at the moment. So we're going away in the UK instead.

We have a family holiday booked in Europe in the summer, so we'll have to assess what the situation is then.

Im quite shocked to hear so many people are going to miss out and lose the money for so many holidays !

My trip to Japan cost a lot of money and it’s like a once in a life time type trip. I’ve been saving up and planning for well over w year ! I’d be devastated to not be able to go - I’d actually rather get the virus then to not be able to go on the trip to be honest!!

We're due to fly out to Paris in three weeks for our first trip to Disney. Really keeping everything crossed that it can still go ahead, but the doubt is very much in the back of my mind 😢

Flew out of Hanoi end of january having travelled from Ho chi Minh City upwards via Cambodia, as this was all escalating. Just had a week in Lisbon with the kids at half term and flying into Laos in three weeks. Partner (we don't live together) has decided to cancel on the latter and lose £600 after a parental request but I'm still going unless the FCO say no; if they say no I'll fly somewhere else. My concession to coronavirus is staying away from my parents for a while on my return.

We live in the US and are meant to be flying out on vacation in 10 days. Visiting the UK then Egypt, Athens and Italy (Venice and Rome). We are now going to divert around Italy but are considering still doing the UK and Egypt bits. Hopefully the airlines will allow us to change our flights without penalty and we will just have to give up on the villas we booked in Italy.

The biggest concern for me with still going on the trip is what if travel advice changes while we are gone and we get quarantined somewhere, particularly somewhere that is not english speaking. I dont fancy having to navigate complex illnesses in a foreign language and we have 4 dc, so if some of us get ill and not the others, would we be separated etc.

I think its reasonable to assume that by the summer, the virus is going to be in pretty much every country around the globe and so the risk of catching it will be basically the same no matter where you are. But you wont have to risk quarantines etc as it will just be situation normal. So I would happily plan to travel in the summer, its just now while the situation is changing rapidly that its a bit fraught for me.

All our company travel globally has been halted until further notice. I suspect though that its more to do with the economic impact of the virus m, as our company's revenue is very sensitive to global economic decline. But they are saying it's because of employee safety concerns.

My husband and I are still going away in 2 weeks to the Caribbean.

Personal hygiene is still the best way to manage the risk of contracting COVID19.