Is Coronavirus keeping you from booking liveaboard/overseas trips this year?

[nippurmagnum]

I'm wondering whether you all are generally holding off on booking liveaboard trips this year, specifically out of concern that foreign travel and/or liveaboard reservations might be impacted by Coronavirus-related travel bans.

Prior to the coronavirus eruption, I had my eye on several potential trips, including the Red Sea, Socorro Islands, and Bali, for this year. I've held off on booking any of them on a non-refundable basis, because I keep seeing travel bans sprouting quite suddenly -- if you've been in Country X, you may not enter Country Y, or you may suddenly find yourself quarantined, or your flight may be cancelled, etc.

My personal impression is that this coronavirus is unlikely to be stopped from spreading worlwide, and that eventually it will just become part of the "normal" flu season. Nobody screens airline passengers for regular flu, even though the regular flu kills hundreds of thousands of people a year. So within a year or so we may have a new normal of sorts.

In the meantime, though, I am wondering about the wisdom of booking a trip that could be affected by sudden panics . . . The flip side of course is that I imagine that availability and pricing for dive liveaboards will be quite good (provided that they are not affected by cancellations themselves).

What do you all think?

 

[Jcp2]

I would wait until public and political sentiment settles to reasonable given the facts that we are yet to know. But then again, I am still working and being stranded beyond a planned vacation time is not something that my employer would necessarily be forgiving of, if this were a known risk.

 

[Angelo Farina]

The problem is overreaction.
Here in Italy the craziness exploded. Schools and universities have been closed, all public events (including sport) cancelled...
We are not allowed to travel at all.
I had to go to South Korea areond half of March, and I had to cancel the work trip.
As you cannot forecast such explosions of craziness, better to wait that the situstion calms down.

 

[Shasta_man]

I don't think "political" sentiment would be involved in an examination of this health related event.

 

[O-ring]

It hasn't kept me from booking liveaboards or other trips, but it does have me questioning whether or not I ought to get trip insurance. Normally I never do, but I wonder if travel restrictions, etc. will be in place due to coronavirus that could interrupt my trips. I'm also not looking forward to reading hours of fine print to see if it would be a covered event under a Diveassure Liveaboard policy. Will be curious what others are doing.

 

[Jay]

I'm wondering whether you all are generally holding off on booking liveaboard trips this year, specifically out of concern that foreign travel and/or liveaboard reservations might be impacted by Coronavirus-related travel bans.

Prior to the coronavirus eruption, I had my eye on several potential trips, including the Red Sea, Socorro Islands, and Bali, for this year. I've held off on booking any of them on a non-refundable basis, because I keep seeing travel bans sprouting quite suddenly -- if you've been in Country X, you may not enter Country Y, or you may suddenly find yourself quarantined, or your flight may be cancelled, etc.

My personal impression is that this coronavirus is unlikely to be stopped from spreading worlwide, and that eventually it will just become part of the "normal" flu season. Nobody screens airline passengers for regular flu, even though the regular flu kills hundreds of thousands of people a year. So within a year or so we may have a new normal of sorts.

In the meantime, though, I am wondering about the wisdom of booking a trip that could be affected by sudden panics . . . The flip side of course is that I imagine that availability and pricing for dive liveaboards will be quite good (provided that they are not affected by cancellations themselves).

What do you all think?

A new normal ... yes, it could be called that but with a much higher infection rate than the general flu, combined with a much higher mortality rate, it's probably 50-100 times more lethal to the average person.

EDIT to add: but being on a boat, and having one infected person, (crew, diver, who was initially asymptotic) .... hmmm, that risk is high.

here's the data I used for the flu Preliminary In-Season 2019-2020 Flu Burden Estimates

will look for more average CV19 mortality info. one good article is China releases largest study on Covid-19 outbreak

 

[MrBigfins]

A new normal ... yes, it could be called that but with a much higher infection rate than the general flu, combined with a much higher mortality rate, it's probably 50-100 times more lethal to the average person.

But it's not more fatal to the typical healthy individual, or more infectious. Most fatalities have been immunocompromised or high risk (young or elderly) and as far as Infectious you must have never seen the flu test through a school or such with a 75% infection rate.

That being said I scheduled a Socorro liveaboard in 30 days, but I purchased trip insurance

 

[Jcp2]

The true mortality rate is likely lesser than reported, as it seems now that it is possible to be infected and show no to very little symptoms and still be infectious. Right now there is only limited true testing capability for the virus, and only those that are overtly symptomatic are being tested. Additionally, more and more cases are being labeled positive without definitive testing, based on a clinical scenario and radiographic findings consistent with infection. Of course, all other severe viral pneumonias, including flu, look the same, so there is also unclear data there. Also, children and younger adults (< 50 years) don’t seem to be the ones getting really sick and dying.

 

[Doc]

I don't think "political" sentiment would be involved in an examination of this health related event.

politics = money

One word can and should be substituted for the other.

To think otherwise is naive or just teasing.

The entire premise of this thread seems cloyingly specious.

 

[drrich2]

Not as yet, but I'm not planning any immediate 'around the world' trips. Put it this way...let's say I were to plan a Caribbean live-aboard, or a land resort-based trip like CocoView Resort of Anthony's Key Resort, or some place in Curacao or Cozumel.

Think any of those tourism-dependent places are going to shut down U.S.-based tourism?

Now let's say I were to plan a trip to Raja Ampat, or Papua New Guinea or the Solomon Islands. I figure I'd be flying through some different nations, nearer to China than the Caribbean by far, and some of those nations might not be as dependent on U.S.-based tourism, and for one of them to bar me because I changed flights in some country they consider sickly, well...

This might be a good time to use a knowledgeable travel agent familiar with the situation in the countries you'd need to pass through.