Canc?n lists massive exodus of tourists

[Jeremy]

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translat...notas/594435.html&lp=es_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

Authorities of the state of Quintana Roo, where are the Caribbean beach destinies of Canc?n and the Mayan Riviera, list the exit of thousands of foreign tourists to their countries in the next days, by the epidemic of pig influenza, although still there are no cases there.
?We considered that they will be leaving as of Friday and until the Sunday?, day in which they wait for the greater flow from travellers to Canada, the United States and Europe, from where the majority of travellers comes, affirmed the secretary of Tourism in Quintana Roo, Sara Latife Ruiz Ch?vez.
Latife realised these declarations during its intervention in the meeting of the Committee of Tourist Crisis, celebrated by the situation of sanitary alert derived from the bud of pig influenza and in which to all the authorities and foreign and national representatives of the sector participate.
The airlines with which the ?plan of evacuation? has been agreed to are Air Canada, Air Europe, Martin Air, Tui, C?ndor and Thompson.
According to the civil servant, at the moment in the zone they are near 40 thousand tourists, some of which already are returning to their places of origin in planned flights of practically empty regular airlines that arrive at the international airport of Canc?n.
According to the embassy of Spain in Mexico, in that zone are about 3 thousand 500 Spanish tourists, none of which have presented/displayed symptoms of the disease.
The airport, one of the most journeyed of the country, ?has capacity to evacuate to those tourists in a single day but it is going away to do of programmed way, the part of greater movement will be Sunday?, said Latife.
Today, the aerial terminal had planned 271 flights, between arrivals and exits, of which at the moment one of the commercial line Mexican Click was cancelled solely that went to Cuba, country that yesterday suspended its aerial connection with Mexico by 48 hours.
Within the framework of the preventive measures against the epidemic, that has left to seven deaths confirmed and 152 suspicious ones in all the country, the government of Quintana Roo ordered east Wednesday the closing of discotheques, bars and restaurants with capacity to take care of more than 80 people in Canc?n and the Mayan Riviera.
Although in Canc?n one has been offered gives that it allows the great premises to work to the 50 percent of his capacity.
Others of the preventive measures dictated by the state government are the installation of specialized equipment in the airport to measure the temperature of the passengers, who delay is arrived from Canada, and the cancellation of visits in the municipal jail.
The ecotur?sticos parks of the zone, as Xcaret and Xel Have, stay open, because the restrictions imposed until the moment do not include open places.
Iliana Rodriguez, spokeswoman of the parks, explained even though they are being taken measured to reinforce the sanitary measures within the park.
On the other hand, Jorge Manica Porthole, president of the Association of Hotels of Tulum, in the Mayan Riviera, informed that until the moment 40% of the reserves programmed for the month of May have been cancelled, due to the sanitary alert.
vsg

 

[Jeremy]

Re: Canc?n lists massive exodus of tourists

Well, according to this article, no one in flying into Cancun and everyone is trying to get out by sometime between Friday and Sunday.

They say they have no cases, but like I said before, the first two Scottish people with Swine Flu were vacationing in Cancun and considerring the virus is breaking out all over Mexico and the U.S. it is hard to believe that there are NO cases in Cancun.

So now all those tourists will be fleeing Mexico in mass.

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Canc?n lists massive exodus of tourists

Tourists flee flu-hit Mexico

Paul R Taylor

April 29, 2009

HUNDREDS of panic-stricken British tourists who have chosen to leave flu-hit Mexico will begin arriving at Manchester Airport over the next few days.

At least 200 holidaymakers staying in Cancun with Thomson Airways and First Choice, both owned by TUI Travel, have already agreed to fly home early.

The firm has arranged three extra flights, one to Manchester and two to Gatwick, from the east coast resort so tourists worried about catching the deadly swine flu virus can leave Mexico.

The Manchester flight will arrive either tomorrow or the next day.

Both Thomson and Thomas Cook yesterday cancelled all outbound flights from Britain to Mexico until the end of next week after the Foreign Office advised against non-essential travel to Mexico.



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Passengers can choose alternative destinations or a refund. Thomas Cook, which also runs Airtours, is not running special flights but will attempt to find worried holidaymakers a seat on its scheduled charter service.

Around 160 people have died in the country's capital Mexico City and the virus has spread around the world, although there have been no fatal cases in other countries.

Holidaymakers who arrived at Manchester Airport this morning on board a Thomson flight from Cancun claimed reps had told them the flu outbreak was being hyped by the media.

Will Todhunter, 42, from Sale, said: "In the airport there were people wearing masks.

"We had lots of texts from worried family and friends but when we asked the reps they said the press were playing it up.

"There haven't been any cases in Cancun, it's all Mexico City, but we heard about the couple in Scotland who had got it after a honeymoon in Cancun.

"Everyone was asking each other whether they had symptoms, such as a headache or sore throat.

"I've got a headache now but I've just been on a nine-hour flight so I'm putting it down to that."

Many passengers said people in Cancun were not concerned and no one in the resorts, 800 miles away from Mexico City, were wearing masks or falling ill. Passengers were given health advice sheets after disembarking the flight, informing them what to do if they display any flu-like symptoms.

Their names and contact details were taken by the HPA officials. Those who are concerned are being told to contact their GP.

Kelly Risley, 24, from Liverpool, said: "I'm just glad to be home, it was terrible. I was really worried when I found out.

"No one has given us any information, we've just read about it in the newspaper.

"There were probably around 10 people in the airport wearing masks."

Thomson has around 3,200 British holidaymakers in Cancun. British Airways has not cancelled any of its four flights a week, none of which fly from Manchester.


http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1112454_tourists_flee_fluhit_mexico

 

[AlaskaDenise]

Re: Canc?n lists massive exodus of tourists

Swine flu: wall of silence in Mexico's Cancun holiday resort

Tourists in Mexico's biggest resort Cancun say hotel staff are maintaining a wall of silence about the swine flu outbreak, downplaying any threat to holidaymakers.

By Tom Leonard in Cancun
Last Updated: 8:33PM BST 29 Apr 2009

Many of the non-Mexican cases of the illness have been linked to holidays in Cancun, where a string of more than 90 modern hotels line a beautiful stretch of Caribbean beach.

But holiday makers who have been there a week say, that apart from a couple of occasions involving a few hotel staff, they have seen nobody wearing a protective mask or indeed taking any precautions against swine flu.

Bars and nightclubs are full each night with tourists, including thousands from Britain, ignoring Mexican government guidelines which warn the general population to keep their distance from each other and avoid bodily contact in public places.

Tourists admit they know about the outbreak from US television news and from anxious calls from friends and family at home, but say they are reassured by the apparent indifference of hotel managements.

Many were shocked to hear that a large proportion of foreigners afflicted by the virus, including 20 New York students and a Scottish couple, fell ill after visiting Cancun.

As The Daily Telegraph discovered, questions to hotel workers about the virus are generally simply ignored as if they haven't been heard or, if pursued, countered with the claim that it hasn't yet reached Cancun.

Mike Heelan, 29, a recruitment consultant from Limerick, Ireland, said: "I've been thinking that the first time I see a mask here, I'm out. But everyone's so blas? here. We're all in a bubble, thinking it's just happening somewhere else."

He said that when he once asked a concierge at a $288-a-night hotel about the bag of masks on his desk, he quickly moved them under a table and said they were for staff.

"They have to have been told not to say anything about it," he said. Mr Heelan admitted that the complacency of guests unwilling to disrupt an expensive holiday was also a factor.

His wife, Marlina, said they received a brief call from their airline, US Airways, enquiring about their health. "I said we were fine. He said, 'That's all I want to know' and hung up," she said.

Ann Murphy, a nurse from Kilkenny who is also on her honeymoon, said a hotel shuttle bus driver had, when asked, made out she knew nothing about the virus. "They obviously don't want to damage their tourist industry," she said.

However, Stacey Bryant, an American honeymooner from Baltimore, criticised "media hysteria", saying: "Unless they can be more specific about where the people caught it in Cancun, we don't want it spoiling our honeymoon."

Angela Caruso, a chief financial officer of a health care company in Connecticut, said she had only seen face masks on the chefs at the local Hard Rock Cafe and a few housekeepers . "It seems to be business as usual here though I don't know what will happen when we get back to the States on Friday," she said.

Thomson, the British holiday company, was due to fly back on Wednesday a couple of hundred of customers who wanted to come home immediately out of more than 2,000 it has staying in Cancun.

A spokesman said it was confident that its holidaymakers were fully aware of the health threat.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/s...silence-in-Mexicos-Cancun-holiday-resort.html