A Travel Reporter's Take on the Swine Flu

I don't want to minimize the seriousness of the swine flu but I just wanted to give you another prospective. This article is from a travel reporter who was at a travel conference in Acapulco just as the outbreak was being reported.

Again, just another point of few for you to ponder....

Letter from Acapulco
By Kerry Medina
Published on: May 1, 2009

This past week I attended the 34th annual Tianguis Turistico, Mexico’s tourism marketplace in Acapulco – and it certainly was an eye-opening event. Not that I’m unfamiliar with Mexico’s tourism industry (I’m the Mexico editor for Travel Pulse and our print magazines), but strangely I did not see a single person with the swine flu or anyone showing symptoms of the virus. After the barrage of media coverage of the illness, I would have expected to find victims of swine influenza (or H1NI as it has been renamed) at every corner.

No, there were no people sick with the virus at the Crowne Plaza where I stayed; at the Acapulco Convention Center, where Tianguis took place; or the Fort of San Diego, where convention-goers, including 1,287 exhibitors, were invited to dinner. Instead, I saw members of Mexico’s travel business shaking hands and greeting each other with kisses on the cheek. In fact, I even welcomed a few warm embraces from old friends myself.

This isn’t to say that Tianguis attendees weren’t taking the swine flu seriously. Everyone was concerned about it and followed closely what the World Health Organization, CDC and the Mexican government were doing to counter it. Laura Malone, spokeswoman for Riu Hotels & Resorts, based in Playa del Carmen, told me that all of her company’s Mexico hotels had implemented a “virus outbreak protocol” of sanitary guidelines for staff to follow as a precautionary measure. But she said Riu has not had one guest report any incidents of swine flu or symptoms of it.

Sylvie Laitre, director of Mexico Boutique Hotels, which has 46 properties in 26 destinations throughout Mexico, also told me that none of the group’s members have had any guests with swine influenza either. But the company has suffered from a huge jump in cancellations and as a result, individual properties are modifying their cancellation policies to accommodate worried travelers.

Francisco Cuevas Feliu, Aeromexico’s executive director of commercial services, assured journalists attending Tianguis that the airline “has and will continue to honor guidelines established by sanitary authorities in Mexico and will abide by any new guidelines issued.” So I wasn’t particularly worried about my return trip.

I realize some may disagree, but having just spent three days in Mexico, the only epidemic I could see was in the press’ endless reporting on the illness. As of April 30, 2009 at 4:34 p.m., the Mexican government has officially reported only 18 laboratory confirmed human cases of swine influenza A/H1N1 infection, according to the CDC website (www.cdc.gov/travel/), though I realize the press has reported more than 150 deaths.

Mexico has a population of 111,211,789, as of July 2009, according to the CIA’s World Fact Book. So if you take those 18 deaths officially attributable to the virus, it means just 0.000016 percent of the country’s population have unfortunately died of the disease. To put it in perspective, if your company’s bottom line fluctuated 0.000016 percent, how drastically would you change the way you do business? Probably not at all, since it’s a negligible number. So why has there been so much media attention causing so much hysteria among travelers?

I’m equally as unsure as to why, when an earthquake measuring 5.6 in magnitude struck southwestern Mexico near Acapulco on Monday, there wasn’t nearly as much fanfare about it in the press. I can tell you from first-hand experience that the convention center oscillated violently in the middle of the day. I was sitting in a second-floor conference room and watched the walls shake before running outside with everyone else.

I suppose it’s because there were fortunately no deaths or major destruction that warranted more on-the-scene reporting. Plus, an earthquake doesn’t cause armies of people to walk around wearing surgical masks, and as we’ve all seen that does make for some very captivating images. There were definitely lots of those photo ops to be had, especially at the Mexico City airport, where I spent the better part of Wednesday during a layover.

It seemed that more than half of the people in the airport -- both employees and passengers -- were wearing face masks, although I chose not to. Aside from the fact that in general I felt there was little, if any, risk of contracting the virus, I also don’t think that a face mask is going to protect anyone from germs and bacteria transmitted from hand-to-surface-to-hand contact, especially not in a pubic place like an airport. On top of that, I was far more fearful of being detained at passport control and customs upon my arrival at JFK.

Given how much I was hearing and reading about swine influenza and the reaction to it in the U.S., I was sure that I was going to be pulled aside at JFK and subjected to an ear, nose and throat exam at the very least. At worst, I thought I might be quarantined just based on the fact that I was arriving from Mexico. Instead, I made it through both passport control and customs in a little less than five minutes -- and that included the time it took me to fill out the customs form. I firmly believe this is a testament to how seriously all of us should take the issue of swine flu.

Certainly you should use common sense in your travels -- wherever they may take you -- and advise your customers to do the same. But don’t let run-away-train reporting form the basis of your travel decisions. Or your next trip could be on the road to agoraphobia.

Kerry Medina
Executive Editor-Hotels & Mexico
TravelPulse.com