I don't want to sound smug or jubilant but this is perhaps good for the region and for the travel industry to learn not to be so dependent on one market i.e. China. As for me, I will proceed with a long-planned trip to Seoul next month on the basis that if I'm going to catch coronavirus, I'd also get it here in KL. Life goes on despite the thousands of deaths.
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Coronavirus patients shouldn’t be brought to the mainland but to places offshore like Hawaii or Alaska to prevent it from spreading like wildfire.
"airlines alone expected to lose some $29 billion in revenues this year."
Good! The sad part is that it takes a deadly and potentially global pandemic to curtail the needless and wasteful air travel. Mark the airlines and investor class loss as a win for the earth.
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@Concernicus some people like to see the world.
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I just cancelled my 10 day trip to Japan. Because I fear it will get worse before it gets better and hotels, airlines, etc charge large penalties to cancel (airline dinging me for $900-despite situation). I am very disappointed but hoping this awful situation is handled correctly and contained asap.
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Could someone with a thoughtful public health view explain why it is not reasonable to give up on conavirus containment. The several efforts that have been made seem very disruptive to world commerce and of almost no effectiveness. Isnt the coronavirus out of the box and further "containment" efforts looking pretty hopeless? I bring this up because I have seen no discussion of this issue, only hyped discussion of yet another Korean or Japanese "quarantine".
I wonder if CO2 levels can be monitored? It's not nice to fool Mother Nature.
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Trump is in Asia. We should quarantine him and not allow him into the United States.
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Time to travel to much of Asia!
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Maybe a voice of reason ... Compare infections to influenza. No competition.
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This is not influenza! Doctors and hospital personnel are getting sick and dying! This novel virus is highly contagious. It is enigmatic with mild to no symptoms in some but severe multi-system complications and deaths via a ‘cytokine storm’ in others even apparently young and healthy.
This is not to panic but brace for the worst and be prepared.
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Maybe you have not been keeping up with news and research.
Anyone who has been exposed to Mainland tourism understands that this is a big plus for the sites that have become overrun with out of control tour groups that swarm into a place, overwhelm it, destroy it and then move on the new locales a few years later.
Every country has its share of poorly mannered tourists, but the scale of the situation with China makes the threat to the target countries nothing short of grave.
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@Brian in FL
At least they haven’t openly demand the locals speak English yet. Maybe they’ll catch up in 20 years and go online calling the kettle black.
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I was in Kyoto exactly one year ago. An apt indication of how sparse the crowds are now would be recent photos of narrow Ninenzaka and Sannenzaka Streets, usually so densely packed with visitors that one can suffocate trying to reach Kiyomizu-dera at the top of the hill. I also recall that the owners of all the shops and services near our Higashiyama machiya were seniors. May they stay robustly healthy. They know better than most that this too shall pass.
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