Press Releases

Swine flu procedures in place

High-level conversations are taking place on a weekly basis in order for the travel industry to be prepared for an outbreak of the H1 N1 flue virus, say the UNWTO.
Assistant secretary-general Geoffrey Lipman told the UNWTO Ministers' Summit at World Travel Market press conference that the organisation was talking every week with other parts of the United Nations system and with the World Health Organisation.
“The Tourism Emergency Response Network is ensuring that there will be common information and messaging system in place if there is a serious outbreak,” he said.
The UNWTO has predicted that global tourism could see modest positive growth in 2010, although an outbreak of H1N1 could threaten this. However, Lipman pointed out that the WHO has said that “restricting travel does not stop the spread of this disease.”
“H1N1 is so widespread that it’s irrelevant in terms of impacting specific destinations,” he said. “The issue is that there are waves of outbreaks, which clog up the systems within an affected area.
“There will be a concern of the infection spreading within crowded spaces during the flu season.
The web site www.sos.travel will offer the business a portal for access to relevant information. Lipman said that in time the portal will be marketed to consumers as a source of information about H1 N1 and other tourism emergency issues.

-ends-

 

About World Travel Market
World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry, is the must-attend four-day business-to-business exhibition for the worldwide travel and tourism industry.
Almost 50,000 senior travel industry professionals, government ministers and international press, embark on London’s ExCeL Centre every November to network, negotiate and discover the latest industry opinion and trends at WTM.
WTM, which is celebrating its 30^th anniversary in 2009, is the event where the travel industry conducts and concludes its deals.
WTM is owned by the world’s leading events organiser Reed Exhibitions (RE), which organises a portfolio of other travel industry events including Arabian Travel Market and International Luxury Travel Market.
RE holds more than 500 events in 38 countries throughout Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific covering 47 industry sectors including aerospace & aviation, healthcare, manufacturing and sport & recreation.
In 2008 RE, part of the Reed Elsevier group, brought together more than six million industry professionals from around the world generating billions of dollars in business.