In this March 27, 2017, file photo, tourists from China take pictures at the New England Aquarium in Boston. With tens of millions of Chinese ordered to stay put and many others opting to avoid travel as the new coronavirus spreads, tourism around the global is taking a heavy hit during one of the biggest travel seasons, the Lunar New Year.
On Monday, China extended the week-long holiday by an extra three days to Feb. 2 to help prevent the epidemic from spreading further, as authorities announced that 2,744 people had fallen ill and 80 had died from the new virus first found in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Shanghai pushed the holiday’s end back to Feb. 9.
That followed a downturn in arrivals from China in early 2019 after several boating accidents raised questions about the safety standards of tour operators. Chinese made about 134 million trips in 2019, according to official figures, up 4.5% from a year earlier but a much slower rate of increase than the nearly 15% growth seen in 2018. Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and South Korea tend to be favorite destinations.
What it's costing countries in tourism $$, it's saving countries in healthcare $$ - not to mention the misery inflicted of illness, the drain on health care resources, scramble for hospital beds/etc & risks to healthcare workers. I'd say countries should be thankful.
Is Chinese reporting of the Coronavirus wholly accurate? How many of you think the Coronavirus:
Bejing expands the lunar new year for another week, perhaps another month to combat the virus while cost of living is burdened on private sectors. CH won't win the fight because 5M people just left wuhan before the city quarantine. By the nature mercy, the virus will go away.
This is a good thing!
If it costs billions human safety has no price they should safeguard humans which is most important
ABSCBNNews rapplerdotcom cnnbrk manilabulletin PhilstarNews pls watch this video. This needs to be brought to an extensive public platform. A Wuhan citizen is speaking about their situation. Pls, he is risking his life against the Chinese government.
Not sure how not traveling is 'costing billions'. It's saving.
Now do a story on how infected are being sent to Hong Kong...where protestors have been railing against the government.