A majority of travel advisors are reporting that growing concerns stemming from the coronavirus outbreak are leading to apprehensive clients and even trip cancellations in some cases.
A Travel Weekly readers poll of nearly 300 advisors conducted earlier this month found that nearly two-thirds (63.8 percent) have had clients cancel trips due to coronavirus fears. What's more, almost half of those advisors (45.6 percent) reported clients canceling trips outside of Asia, where the outbreak originated.
Canceled flights and cruises, hotel closings, bans on some passengers, quarantined cruise ships and heightened travel advisories undoubtedly have some travelers on edge but some of the survey results suggest many clients' fears are the product of a lack of knowledge.
Of the 50.3 percent of advisors who said the outbreak was affecting forward bookings, nearly 64 percent said they were experiencing a slowdown in requests for travel in general, compared to 51.8 percent who reported seeing a dip in requests for Asia bookings and 42.9 percent who saw a slowdown in China bookings.
Only 4.2 percent of those advisors who reported an impact on forward bookings indicated that they've seen an uptick in requests for travel outside of Asia.
Most clients perceive North America as the least risky destination at the moment, followed by Europe, South America, Australia and the Pacific Rim and Africa.
More than 39 percent of surveyed advisors say that clients have asked to delay planned travel to Asia because of coronavirus fears while a close 35 percent say their clients have not delayed or rebooked travel due to the outbreak.
Interestingly though, nearly one-third of advisors (30.5 percent) indicated that their clients have asked to delay planned travel outside of Asia while about a quarter of advisors (24.2 percent) have had clients request to rebook travel from Asia to other parts of the world.
When asked how they'd describe the general mood of their clients with regard to the coronavirus, a majority of surveyed advisors said that they are most afraid of taking a cruise (43.6 percent) or traveling to Asia specifically (36.2 percent) while only one out of 10 advisors (9.7 percent) report that their clients aren't concerned at all, compared to 28.2 percent that indicated their clients are generally concerned about traveling anywhere.
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