Nervous travelers weigh SARS warnings

Airlines, cruise lines and tour operators scrambled last week to appease nervous travelers in the wake of new government warnings to avoid travel to parts of Asia, including Hong Kong and Vietnam.

The rapid spread of SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome, caused the World Health Organization to urge travelers to avoid Hong Kong and Guangdong province in Southern China.

The travel warning, the first the U.N. organization has issued due to health reasons, triggered reaction by individual countries, including the United States, which advised against travel to Hong Kong and Vietnam; Canada, which told citizens to avoid all of China, Singapore, Taiwan and Hanoi; and Australia, which warned against travel to Toronto after more than 50 cases of the mystery pneumonia-like disease were reported in the province of Ontario.

The disease had been spread by international travelers to many countries, including the United States.

"We've been getting about 75 percent of our clients changing their air-travel plans because of SARS and the war," said Isabel Chen, marketing director of ASA Tours International in Tukwila. Airlines last week began extending policies in effect since the war started that allow passengers with tickets to change their travel plans.

Northwest Airlines, which flies daily from Seattle to Tokyo, is allowing passengers with international travel plans through August to rebook through December without penalty. United, the U.S. carrier with the most flights to Asia, said customers with tickets booked before April 15 for travel through May, could postpone until later this year without a fee.

Some tour companies were taking a harder line, especially those based in Asia through which American travel agents book trips.

Chen said her company has been urging their Chinese suppliers to relax their cancellation policies, but hasn't had much success.

"They're basically taking the position that 'we're not stopping you from going. Yes, SARS is going on, but there are thousands of people who are fine on a daily basis.' "

To appease customers who want to cancel, Chen said her company is offering a credit on travel to any destination where ASA sells tours.

Quarantines

China agreed last week to let international health investigators visit the place where the flulike illness apparently began — the southern province of Guangdong.

Worldwide, at least 78 people have died and more than 2,200 are believed to be sick (as of midweek when the Travel section was printed). There is no medicine to treat the illness, and scientists still had not confirmed a cause.

Although the majority of the SARS cases have been found in Hong Kong and Guangdong province, the travel warnings threaten to devastate Asia's tourism industry, with ripple effects expected in Japan and other countries.

"The damage is incalculable," Manus Pipatananan, president of the Thai Travel Agents Association told the Reuters news service last week.

Vietnam, where 58 cases of SARS had been reported by midweek, was placed on the U.S. State Department's warning list because of inadequate hospital facilities and the fact that no commercial air carriers are willing to transport SARS patients.

Globus and Cosmos tour companies canceled all trips to Vietnam until further notice and canceled trips to Hong Kong scheduled for this month. Customers will get refunds, said spokeswoman Barbara Bauerle.

The companies were working last week on rerouting May and June trips to Beijing and other parts of China to avoid stopping in Hong Kong, she said.

Dave Bruels, owner of Interlake China Tours in Seattle, said his Chinese suppliers were sticking by their normal cancellation policies — no refunds within 30 days of departure; 50 percent back within a 30- to 45-day window. Two companies offering Yangtze River cruises were being more flexible, he said. One offered the opportunity to rebook through the end of the year; another was offering rescheduling through August.

Travel insurance

After the Sept. 11 attacks, some tour companies and cruise lines began offering insurance policies that allow customers to cancel trips up to 24 hours in advance of departure, for any reason.

Customers who bought those policies will be covered if they change their minds about travel due to the health warnings. But most regular types of travel insurance don't cover cancellations due to health alerts, said Dan McGinnity of Travel Guard International, a major travel insurer.

Trip-cancellation coverage kicks in if a trip has to be canceled because of quarantine or other health issues that prevents travel.

McGinnity said his company recently reimbursed a Seattle family for airline tickets after it was delayed in Hawaii on its way to New Zealand when one of the children became ill, and the airline insisted she be checked for SARS. The child was not infected, but the family missed its flight and had to reschedule.

For the latest updates on SARS, consult the King County Health Department at 206-296-4600 or www.metrokc.gov/health; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at 800-311-3435 or www.cdc.gov; the World Health Organization at www.who.int/en/; and the U.S. State Department at www.travel.state.gov.

Carol Pucci: 206-464-3701 or cpucci@seattletimes.com.