Vietnamese travel companies are calling on the country’s tourism authority and other agencies to spread the word globally about the tough measures the government is taking to combat bird flu. 
In the light of increasing apprehension among foreign tourists, failure to do so could damage tourism industry, they warned.

Things appeared to be going well for industry with foreign arrivals in the first 11 months rising some 18.8 percent to 3.2 million according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT).

However, travel businesses’ initial euphoria is giving way to mounting anxiety considering the vast media coverage of the bird flu outbreaks in 17 Vietnamese provinces. The affected provinces, most of which are in the north, include Quang Ninh, home to the world famous Ha Long Bay.

The travel companies said foreign bookings for next year were tapering off, though particularly Europeans should have made huge bookings by now.

“Tourists from Europe and even Asia are apprehensive about the bird flu, with most paying close attention to the outbreaks here,” a travel agency owner said anxiously, admitting two Chinese groups of more than 100 people had made cancellations.

Travel companies hold the fort

To allay tourists’ fears, it is the tour agencies themselves who seem to be making efforts.

The HCMC-based Volunteer Travel Co. recently managed to persuade a group of 35 US students not to cancel their tour to Vietnam early next year. The youngsters had made their bookings two years ago, but their parents wanted them to cancel the tour as soon as news about bird flu in Vietnam spread.

The company managed to assuage the parents’ anxieties by sending them updates on the infection locations and stressing the Vietnamese government’s drastic measures to stamp out a potential pandemic and ensure no one, including foreigners, got the deadly disease.

However, what the travel industry needs, especially now when European tour companies scramble to sign contracts, is for the VNAT and other agencies concerned to hold campaigns to inform the world about the country’s huge efforts to combat bird flu.

Bird flu has claimed 42 lives in Vietnam with 21 out of its 64 cities and provinces affected since late 2003.

Reported by Cam Nhi – Translated by Ngoc Hanh