DestinationVillas.com issued a swine flu travel advisory on Wednesday urging travelers to temporarily avoid all non-essential travel.
Mexico is the epicenter for the swine influenza virus outbreak with more than 100 deaths in Mexico possibly resulting from the virus. Mexico isn't the only country that potentially has a tourism headache on its hands. Cases of swine flu have also popped up in Canada and Spain as well as the United States and Scotland.
The United States government is urging Americans to avoid all "non-essential" travel to Mexico out of concern for the swine flu outbreak. Some of the confirmed cases in the United States were high school students who recently returned from a trip to Mexico.
Mexico is telling citizens to stay home, urging businesses to close for five days and suspending government services as the World Health Organization warns the swine flu outbreak is on the brink of becoming a global epidemic.
Reports of the illness in Mexico could not have come at a worse time for the country's tourism industry, which is already grappling with a significant decline in tourism over concerns about drug-cartel violence. Mexico tourism has been on a steady decline since the U.S. issued a travel warning about the drug cartels.
According to Ian Jeffries, a spokesman for Expedia.com, the company had no evidence as of Monday that cancellations or changes were caused by fear of swine flu, but added that it was prepared to aid any of its customers that had concerns.
"Expedia is currently offering to waive Expedia-imposed change and cancel fees for hotel and air reservations originally booked to Mexico," he said. "We will continue to monitor the situation and modify our policy accordingly."
Several major U.S. airlines also are waiving fees for those who want to change their travel plans to Mexico. Call you airline to find out more.
About DestinationVillas.com
Destination Villas, a leader in the vacation rental market, offers a directory of premium properties to make it easy to find vacation rentals. Each listed property offers photos, descriptions, online request forms, rate calculators, resort information, amenities, last minute deals and an ever-growing library of articles featuring local attractions and destination guides. Destination Villas allows travelers to bypass travel agents, managers, hotel chains and middlemen and rent directly from homeowners who have properties in world-class resorts and famous destinations. Save up to 70% on vacation rental vacations from Destination Villas. Vacation rental owners can list vacation rental property for free. Travelers search for properties for free.
