by Jim Byers
Last updated: 4:15 PM ET, Mon March 2, 2020
One of the world's most popular countries and one of the globe's top tour operators are each urging calm - and a sense of perspective - on the matter of the Covid-19 virus, also known as the coronavirus.
Italy Tourism officials in Canada and Toronto-based G Adventures each put out statements on Monday regarding the virus, which has sparked headlines around the world and is causing major headaches in the travel and tourism business.
Early on Tuesday, Scenic Group announced a change to the company's cruise cancellation policy.
The new policy, taking effect immediately across the company's portfolio of brands gives all currently booked guests with a departure on or after June 1, 2020, and guests considering a booking after that date, the option to transfer their booking to an alternate departure without penalty, up to 30 days prior to departure.
"At Scenic Group, our philosophy is to show the beauty the world has to offer to our guests in an extraordinary and safe way", said Scenic Group COO, Mr Rob Voss. "Our new policy allows guests more time to make decisions about future travel plans".
The policy will apply to all brands with the Scenic Group: Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours, Emerald Cruises, Scenic Eclipse, Evergreen Cruises & Tours and Mayflower Cruises & Tours.
While all itineraries, with the exception of China, are currently operating as scheduled, Scenic will continue to closely monitor the situation and follow the advice of the company's ground operators, Government travel advisories, World Health Organization (WHO), and Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).
"Italy is a safe country, it is safe to live in Italy and it is safe to travel to Italy," the Italian National Tourist Board's Canadian office said in a media release. "The Italian National Health System, among the most efficient in the world, immediately implemented procedures directed at safeguarding citizens and tourists. Intense controls made it possible for the Italian Government to monitor and contain the spreading of Covid-19 from the earliest diffusion outside the Chinese borders. The adoption of extraordinary preventive actions, such as the temporary closure of several sites or the suspension of several events, represents cautionary measures which have nothing to do with the spreading of the virus throughout the Italian territory."
Officials were careful to point out that only a small part of the country has reported cases of the virus.
"In accordance with the data provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to date only 0.05% of Italy is affected by extraordinary measures of temporary isolation of some Italian cities (equal to 0.1% of the total) aimed at avoiding the spread of the virus. Only 11 out of 7904 Italian cities are affected by such measures: Bertonico, Casalpusterlengo, Castelgerundo, Castiglione D'Adda, Codogno, Fombio, Maleo, San Fiorano, Somaglia and Terranova dei Passerini in Lombardy, and Vo' Euganeo in Veneto.
"The remainder of the country, including the Italian regions where the cities in temporary isolation are located, is safe and accessible. All services and activities for citizens and tourists are normally provided and the quality of life, for which Italy is famous world-wide, remains high.
For additional information, please consult the following links:
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation - https://www.esteri.it/mae/it/sala_stampa/archivionotizie/approfondimenti/farnesinaal-lavoroper-una-corretta-informazione-all-estero.html
- Ministry of Health http://www.salute.gov.it
- National Institute of Health https://www.iss.it
- EpiCentro, portal of epidemiology for public health https://www.epicentro.iss.it/coronavirus
- World Health Organization https://www.who.int
Meanwhile, G Adventures Founder Bruce Poon Tip also issued a statement.
"In light of the recent Coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19) I wanted to reassure our travellers that G Adventures has their health and wellbeing at the heart of all we do. We are constantly monitoring the situation on the ground from our 28 offices around the world, and it's our job to ensure our travellers have the most up-to-date information to stay safe. If any of our travellers have any questions about their upcoming travel arrangements, we urge them to contact us so we can help in any way we can."
"Whilst the current situation needs to be taken seriously, during our 30 years in the tourism business we have dealt with similar situations such as SARS, Zika and Ebola, and in our experience the panic around these issues usually subsides once the initial fear dissipates. We hope this to be the case this time, too," he said.
"We still firmly believe travel is incredibly safe. As pioneers of community tourism, we believe travel can be the greatest form of wealth distribution the world has seen, and as much as we have a commitment to our travellers, we also have a commitment to the local communities that tourism benefits. This situation has the potential to be damaging for those communities. We hope that our travellers will keep travelling, even if that means changing their destination, or postponing plans.
"We thank our travellers for their resilience they have demonstrated over the past three decades. This has shown travel can continue to be a force for good.I'd also like to take this opportunity to urge our travellers to rise up and be the shining light on inclusivity in terms of the racism, xenophobia and division being reflected in reactions to and coverage of Coronavirus. As an Asian myself, I feel this. Recent reports of racism towards Asians as a result of this pandemic are extremely unfortunate. Ignorance is counterproductive to public health and wellness," Poon Tip said.
"It's important that we remember we are stronger together. We are living in dangerous times, where people are divided and looking for division. We must come together as a global community. Coronavirus is an issue for humanity - not for individual races or people.
"Thanks to our travellers for being the change we want to see in the world. Again, we are and will continue to be committed to the health and safety of our travellers, while continuing to support their burning desire to explore the world in a way that gives back to the places we travel."
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