|
 Travel Industry: 'Viva La Mexico'
By BRIAN PEARSON
Business Editor (courtesy of Tyler Paper )
Quitman residents Jeff and Analiese Morris
first saw the grim television reports about the H1N1 panic in late
April while sitting in the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport
terminal and waiting on a Mexico-bound flight.
Jeff
Morris already had enough to think about, considering it was his first
time to fly and Mexico’s image was already tainted with reports of
bloody drug cartel violence. The couple had left behind four children
to embark on a rare vacation together.
“We don’t get to take many vacations, just the
two of us,” said Morris, 30, a Quitman Ford technician who vacationed
with his wife at Playa del Carmen.
Five days and four nights
later, the couple safely returned to East Texas, well-rested and
satisfied with their pleasurable vacation experience, he said.
And neither of them as of Friday had developed the H1N1 illness.
Travel
agents and airline officials say vacationers such as the Morris couple
represent what should be happening in the tourism industry: fear-free
traveling.
They say reports about drug violence and H1N1 have
been particularly harmful to tourism in Mexico, while worries over
those issues should focus mainly on Mexico City and the violent border
region.
Sharon Kay Howell, owner of Travel Masters in Tyler,
said that while media attention to H1N1 has affected traveling
worldwide, she has not seen a decline in her business.
In fact, business was better the first quarter of this year than it was for the same 2008 period, she said.
“The
trend we’re seeing is people are still going,” Ms. Howell said.
“They’re still traveling. People figured out that, not to make light of
the situation, this (flu) was slightly overblown. Flu is always a risk.
Every time of year we have flu.
“You have to keep in perspective
how many people died of swine flu recently versus how many people will
be killed on the highway in this country on Memorial Day weekend.”
As of Friday, there were two confirmed H1N1 deaths in Texas.
Howell blamed the Center for Disease Control and the media for blowing H1N1 out of proportion.
She
acknowledged that she would not recommend traveling to Mexico City,
where images of mask-wearing residents have been prominent in the
media, However, the tourist cities such as Playa del Carmen and Cancun
are anything but plagued with the disease, she said.
“I’d get on a plane and go tomorrow in a minute,” Ms. Howell said.
She said reports about the disease come at a time when the economy put fragility into the tourism industry.
“My
bigger concern is that while we struggle with our economy, we’ll let
the CDC escalate the H1N1 to a pandemic without understanding how that
will add to our economic problems,” Ms Howell said. “Are we really
being responsible? For the CDC to use the word pandemic is ridiculous.
We can’t feign concern about the economy on one side of our mouth and
then out of the other side use the word pandemic.
“The (tourism)
industry as a whole has taken it on the chin. The airlines have
curtailed some of their flights to Mexico City and people equate flying
to the resort cities such as Cancun with what’s happening to Mexico
City. They forget the size of the country of Mexico.”
Clyde Sanders, general manager for American Eagle operations in Tyler and Longview, said H1N1 has not affected local flights.
“We
haven’t really seen any falloff in travel,” Sanders said. “It has
really been a non-event for us. The flights have still been oversold.”
What the airline has done is emphasize hygiene, such as through making hand sanitizers more available to travelers.
Emily
Palmer, Austin-based Texas Department of State Health Services
spokeswoman, said heightened awareness about the disease helps
travelers, particularly ones more susceptible to getting sick, make
educated choices about where they go.
Ms. Palmer emphasized that the CDC as of Thursday had no travel advisories stemming from the disease.
“Certainly nothing has been closed down,” she said. “People need to keep this in perspective …”
Quitman resident Morris said his Playa del Carmen vacation was everything he dreamed of.
“They
were saying on the TV, ‘Don’t go to Mexico,’” Morris said. “But there
was nothing going on. No worries. No problems. There was nobody walking
around with masks.
“And all of the violence was overblown. It was perfectly safe.”
Trackback(0)
Copyright 2007. All Rights Reserved.  |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Show/Hide comment form