Zika Virus Hurting the U.S. Travel Industry, Experts Say

The quickly-spreading Zika virus is having a negative impact on the U.S. travel industry; experts have warned. According to the experts, that virus that has been spreading at unprecedented rates has caused serious financial problems in the sector. Private aviation services like Jettly may expect demand to increase as people might view public flights as being higher risk.

People are canceling plans to vacation in the Caribbean and Central as well as South America, mostly at the last minute. If this is not addressed, then the industry could lose millions of dollars worth of revenues in the coming weeks. This would affect not only the would-be travelers but also the hotels, cruise ships, and tour companies.

But it’s not vacation travel being affected. Recent statistics show that business travel has also been affected with companies canceling meetings and conferences planned for the affected areas. Already, the hotel industry is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because of this.

Air carries already feeling the heat

Air carriers have voiced their concerns over the impact of the virus, saying that they are losing a lot of money. The carries say that their stock prices have fallen 3 percent since the news of the outbreak with Jet Blue’s stocks falling a massive 6 percent.

United and several carriers have been forced to offer refunds to pregnant women who bought tickets to the affected countries. This was after the World health organization warned that there could be a link between the deadly virus and the rise in the number of babies born with small heads.

Kathryn Janicek, who had planned to go on a honeymoon vacation in Costa Rica says she has had to cancel those plans because she intends on getting babies in the future and she wouldn’t like her babies to be born with small heads.

“What if I get stung?” asked Kathryn. “What if I end up carrying the virus in my body until the time I get kids?”

She says that if she were past the pregnancy age, then maybe she would have just proceeded with her plans. But given that she is approaching 40, she would better stay and brave the cold than risk the lives of future babies.

“I’m going to be 40 in May,” she told Fox News. “If I was past the pregnancy age or if I wasn’t planning on having kids, then maybe.”

We all wait to see what will be done by the different governments and agencies to take down the virus. In the meantime, if you’re a travel agency, consider getting a travel agency merchant account from eMerchantBroker.com to protect your customers.

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