Travel bookings to China dips after coronavirus outbreak, travel advisory

Bookings to China have slowed down and travellers are adopting a wait and watch stance following the outbreak of coronavirus in the country.

Inbound visitors from China are being subject to health screening at seven airports in India and around the world to arrest the spread of disease. 

At Indian airports, over 9,000 passengers have been screened so far and no case of virus detected in the country.

"We have started to see some signs of travellers refraining from booking to China in response to the news of the virus outbreak and the subsequent travel advisory. In fact, last week registered a 31 percent dip in bookings from the week before that. We are yet to observe any immediate traveller reactions in terms of bookings cancellations to the country,"  said Balu Ramachandran, Senior Vice President, Cleartrip.

Thomas Cook said customers are expressing concerns about travelling to China at the moment.

“Most of our customers are adopting a wait and watch approach to see further developments. For customers who prefer to cancel, we will accordingly offer best options to either defer their travel, provide best alternate destinations basis availability, visas/documentation and pricing or a future travel voucher to enable them reschedule at a time convenient for them,"  said  Rajeev Kale, president and country head (Holidays) Thomas Cook India.