Fear of coronavirus spreads anxiety among travelers
The only thing spreading faster than the new coronavirus itself is the travel anxiety associated with it. Thousands of cases have popped up around the world, and while they are primarily in China, everyone is on high alert from South Korea to Italy to the United State.
What are everyday people doing in the face of such unprecedented anxiety? The USA TODAY Travel team spoke with people who planned – and in some cases, are still planning – to travel to Asia and beyond as the outbreak continues.
As of Wednesday, there were more than 94,000 cases worldwide, most of which are in Asia. But the number of cases in Europe and the Middle East has recently surged, and the Caribbean, too, has its first cases.
If these travelers’ stories are any indication, this is just the beginning of the impact the coronavirus will have for all travelers in 2020.
Are people still going to see Japan’s cherry blossoms?
Amanda Anderson and her friends wanted to experience cherry blossom season and celebrate a friend’s milestone birthday in Japan this spring. Then they heard more about the new coronavirus, and their anxiety festered about their late March excursion.
“Someone in our group works in medicine and the more that continued to come out about the coronavirus, the more hesitation she felt, and ultimately we all felt,” the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Anderson, 32, told USA TODAY. The group pored over medical articles to make an educated decision.
The cherry blossoms are a popular tourist attraction, bringing reportedly more than 60 million people to and within Japan every year. The best viewing period for 2020 across much of the country is late March through early April, according to forecasts.
Anderson and her friends were able to cancel their Japan Airlines flights, which were booked through JAL partner American Airlines and use the credit toward other trips, though they aren’t rescheduling their Japan plans.
Still, Japan’s tourist organization remains optimistic in the wake of the coronavirus. “The cherry blossoms will certainly be blossoming this spring, and we expect there will continue to be great interest amongst American travelers in coming to see them,” Keiko Matsuura of the Japan National Tourism Organization told USA TODAY.
Disappointment has set in as no one in Anderson’s group had visited Japan before. But they haven’t given up on traveling to Asia just yet.
“Many Asian countries are on our ‘to-visit’ list, so we’ll likely reconsider a trip to the region in six to 12 months,” Anderson
said.
For now, the group is looking into a weekend trip to the Caribbean instead.
‘Don’t want to be quarantined’: Tokyo Olympics – to go or not
Coronavirus fears are making people second-guess their travel plans for the Olympics.
Kendall Taylor, a 24-year-old real estate agent in New York, said he and his cousin canceled their trip after seeing headlines about the virus pick up.
“We’re not two guys that are afraid to go anywhere, but when you hear these cases … we don’t want to put ourselves in the environment that we could get it or possibly get it,” he told USA TODAY, adding that he felt he was at a higher risk because he planned to travel to multiple areas in Japan during his 15-day journey.
Though Taylor was able to get most of his money back from his $1,100 Air Canada flight thanks to purchasing travel insurance, he and his cousin suffered a “huge loss” over his accommodations to the tune of $500 per person.
The decision was especially hard for the pair, who had always dreamed of going to the Olympics after growing up watching the games on TV, said Taylor, who had not yet purchased tickets to any Olympic events.
He said it hurts to cancel his trip, which he started planning in December, but he knew it was the best option for him.
“I don’t want to be in a situation where we get there and we get stuck or we get there and we can’t come back to America because it’s broken out bigger,” he said.
The fate of this year’s Olympic
Games themselves is still being weighed.
Japan’s Olympic minister Seiko Hashimoto told the country’s upper house of parliament that the contract for the Tokyo Games stipulates only that the event be held at some point during the calendar year, leaving open the possibility that it could be postponed to later in 2020. The Olympics are
scheduled to run from July 24 through Aug. 9.
‘We never considered canceling’: Europe trip still a go for Tennessee woman
Grace Boerger arrived in Germany on Saturday for her first European vacation and already is on Plan C.
Her son and daughter-in-law surprised her with a two-week vacation for her birthday last fall and the trio was due to visit Milan, Florence, Cinque Terre and Verona.
They switched to Plan B a week ago after her daughter-in-law texted her with news of lockdowns in northern Italy because of coronavirus. The number of cases in the country surged to 1,694 Monday.
The revised itinerary had the trio visiting southern Italy instead, with stops in Rome, Naples, Sorrento and Capri. But the day they landed in Germany, where they were starting the trip to visit with relatives there, the U.S. State Department changed its alert level for northern Italy to its highest level so the family decided to skip Italy altogether.
On the agenda now: driving through Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France and a possible trip to Belgium.
One upside to the repeated change in itinerary: She might get two trips to Europe.
“We are making plans to come back next year sometime and do all of Italy LOL,” she said via Facebook Messenger on Monday.
The 49-year-old medical assistant said the family never discussed ditching the trip to Europe.
“We never considered canceling,” she said. “It’s not that I’m not worried, but you practice flu and cold protocols, make sure you wash your hands, use hand sanitizer.”
Cruises and coronavirus
Cruisers around the world have watched and listened as passengers have found themselves stuck on board ships in limbo or in quarantine thanks to coronavirus fears or the virus itself.
What effect is uncertainty having on cruisers?
Are they hesitant to schedule trips going forward? Are they canceling sailings they’ve already booked?
When the outbreak began in early February, frequent cruisers were already weighing the risks that come with the spread of coronavirus. Their reactions to the news were mixed.
Carole Jones, 47, from Minnesota, finished a cruise with Carnival Cruise Line last month.
Jones has six children, and on past cruises, her children have contracted norovirus. It changed the way they approached later cruises but hasn’t stopped them.
With the confined space of a cruise ship, Jones said she understands how viruses like coronavirus or norovirus can get out of hand quickly. Now, they take wipes to sanitize their cabin, don’t eat at any buffets and try not to use any public restrooms on board.
“We were on the (Carnival) ship when first quarantine happened overseas,” she told USA TODAY, referring to the Diamond Princess being placed under quarantine in Japan from Feb. 5-19. “It definitely made us nervous.”
Jones’ family has another cruise scheduled in a few months that leaves from California and sails down the coast of Mexico. At this point, they aren’t planning to cancel. But they also aren’t committed to going.
“We have not (put) more money towards the cruise, either. We have kept it at the standard $150 deposit,” she said Friday. Carnival Cruise Line, she added, requires a deposit and they typically pay off their cruises month by month. Now though, they’re holding off until the final fee deadline.
Others are determined to not let the virus keep them from their plans.
Sylvain Plasse, an actor from Toronto and frequent cruiser who has completed more than 100 sailings, told USA TODAY in a message that “we have to continue living.” He had no plans to stop cruising but is taking precautions.
“(Coronavirus) definitely will not deter me from cruising; however ... I am avoiding Asia at all costs,” he said. Many cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line, have canceled or changed their Asia itineraries.
John and Melanie Haering, who experienced the Diamond Princess quarantine firsthand – which landed John in a hospital in Japan with coronavirus – say that they would go on another cruise again.
“Absolutely and even on Princess,” Melanie told USA TODAY.
“We have been through a horrific experience, we could have potentially died, we were separated, we felt fear, we shed lots of tears,” John told USA TODAY Thursday. “If we let that bad experience shape how we live the rest of our lives then that is a bigger tragedy. One bad cruise does not make them all bad.”