Zika warning hits flight bookings to L. America

new york — Airline bookings to parts of Latin America and the Caribbean have slipped globally since a US public health agency warned pregnant women against travel to areas where the Zika virus is spreading, travel data analysis company ForwardKeys said.

Bookings to regions hit by the mosquito-borne virus fell some 3.4 per cent from a year ago between January 15, when the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a travel advisory, and February 10, the report found.

A move by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on February 1 to call the Zika outbreak an international emergency appeared to accelerate the slide, with bookings plunging 10 per cent between the WHO announcement and February 10, according to the report. The study, which analysed around 14 million daily travel agency transactions made via

3.4% fall in bookings seen from a year ago to the Latin America regions

global ticket distributors, provides early evidence of Zika’s potentially broad impact on travel demand to certain Latin American countries.

Before the CDC warning, bookings were up 4.9 per cent during December and early January to the same destinations from a year ago, the report said.

Scientists are investigating a potential link between Zika infections of pregnant women and more than 4,000 suspected cases in Brazil of microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small head size. —