World tourism body says must prepare for bird flu
By Mark Heinrich and Parisa Hafezi
The Star, 9 Mar 2006

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of the World Tourism Organization (WTO) urged people to continue to travel despite fears over bird flu but said on Wednesday the industry must prepare for the threat of an epidemic among people. 

The tourism industry has survived a series of difficulties in recent years, including conflict in the Middle East, militants attacking tourists, the SARS disease and natural disasters, WTO Secretary-General Francesco Frangialli said. 

"We must now prepare for what could well be the next obstacle in our path: an avian flu epidemic with human-to-human transmission leading governments to restrict visits and to close borders," he said in a copy of a speech to be given at the ITB tourism fair in Berlin. 

 

Four swans fly over the riverbank of the Vistula River in Torun, Poland March 8, 2006. (REUTERS/Peter Andrews)

"Among the major sectors of the world economy, the transport and travel industry would undoubtedly be one of the most severely affected," he added. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that bird flu has infected 175 people, killing 96 of them since 2003, with the victims contracting the virus from infected birds. But scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that can pass from human to human, sparking a pandemic.  The H5N1 virus has extended its spread across Europe from Asia in recent weeks. 

Frangialli said it was still possible to travel without constraint, provided travelers followed government health guidelines.  "The contagion is still basically limited to bird populations," he said. "There is absolutely no cause for panic." 

The WTO was finalizing an action plan in Berlin to cope with a possible epidemic. The organization’s group in charge of crisis management was then due to meet in Paris on March 16. 

Europe's biggest tourism firms, TUI and Thomas Cook, have reported a drop in bookings to eastern Mediterranean destinations and particularly Turkey, where four children died of the H5N1 bird flu strain in January.  European airlines have meanwhile drawn up contingency plans to ground thousands of flights and installed disease protection supplies on planes in the event of an outbreak of the virus.