The only thing that spreads faster than the news the coronavirus itself is the travel anxiety associated with it. Thousands of cases have arisen worldwide and, while mainly in China, everyone is on high alert, from South Korea to Italy to the United States.
What do ordinary people do in the face of unprecedented anxiety? The USA TODAY Travel team interviewed people who planned – and in some cases still plan – to travel to Asia and beyond as the epidemic continues.
Monday there were almost 89,300 cases worldwide, nearly 85,000 (or 95%) including in South Asia. But the number of cases in Europe almost tripled over the weekend, from around 800 to more than 2,180. The Middle East count also doubled over this period, from around 500 to more 1,100, making it the third most infected region in the world.
Daily coronavirus updates:Receive the USA TODAY daily briefing in your inbox
Italy and Iran, which have 1,694 and 978 cases respectively, contributed the majority of the totals for their regions.
The Caribbean also has their first cases: the Ministry of Public Health of the Dominican Republic confirmed on Sunday that a 62-year-old man from northern Italy, who arrived on February 22, has since tested positive. France has also reported three cases in one of its overseas territories, Guadeloupe.
If these traveler stories are any indication, this is just the beginning of the impact that the coronavirus will have for all travelers in 2020.
Latest flight cancellations: Delta and the United States suspend flights to Milan as coronavirus reductions spread to Italy
How to protect your trip:What travel insurance covers for coronavirus – and what it doesn’t
In the midst of a coronavirus epidemic, will people still see Japanese cherry blossoms?
Amanda Anderson and her friends wanted to experience the cherry blossom season and celebrate the anniversary marking in Japan this spring. Then they heard more and more about the new coronavirus, and their anxiety worsened about their excursion in late March.
“Someone in our group works in the medical field and the more it continued to reveal itself on the coronavirus, the more it hesitated and, ultimately, we all felt it,” TODAY told USA , USA, Charlotte, North Carolina, 32 years old. The group looked at medical articles to make an informed decision.
Cherry blossoms are a popular tourist attraction, apparently bringing more than 60 million people in Japan and Japan each year. The best viewing period for 2020 in much of the country is from late March to early April, according to forecasts.
Anderson and his friends were able to cancel their Japan Airlines flights, which were booked through partner JAL American Airlines, and use the credit for other trips, although they do not reschedule their plans for Japan.
Because American Airlines currently has no Travel notice or country override, said Anderson, “We really had to cry out to the airline customer service representatives to help us out. In the end, we were all able to cancel and keep the full value of our tickets.”
However, the Japanese tourist organization remains optimistic in the wake of the coronavirus. “The cherry blossoms will certainly bloom this spring, and we expect American travelers to continue to show great interest in coming to see them,” said Keiko Matsuura, of the Japan National Tourism Organization, at USA TODAY.
Disappointment set in because no one in Anderson’s group had visited Japan before. But they have not yet given up traveling to Asia.
“Many Asian countries are on our” must see “list, so we will likely reconsider a trip to the region in six to 12 months,” said Anderson.
For now, the group is considering a weekend in the Caribbean instead.
“I’m not nervous about Thailand right now, but a little nervous about going to Japan right now,” he told USA TODAY. “I will wait until April to cancel.”
“I don’t want to be quarantined”: to go or not to go to the Tokyo Olympics
Fears related to the coronavirus prompt people to guess their travel plans for the Olympic Games.
Kendall Taylor, a 24-year-old real estate agent in New York, said he and his cousin had canceled their trip to Tokyo after seeing the headlines about the spread of the virus.
“We are not two guys who are afraid of going anywhere, but when you hear these cases … we do not want to put ourselves in the environment that we could get it or possibly get it”, a- he told USA TODAY, adding that he felt more at risk since he planned to travel to several regions of Japan during his 15-day trip.
Although Taylor was able to recover most of his money from his $ 1,100 Air Canada flight through the purchase of travel insurance, he and his cousin suffered a “huge loss” on his accommodation up to $ 500 per person.
The decision was particularly difficult for the couple, who had always dreamed of going to the Olympics after growing up watching games on television, said Taylor, who had yet to buy tickets for an Olympic event.
He said it hurt to cancel his trip, which he started planning in December, but he knew it was the best option for him.
“I don’t want to be in a situation where we get there and we get stuck or we get there and we can’t come back to America because it’s bigger,” he said.
Jordan Moore, a 21-year-old American living in Japan, said he was not afraid to attend the men’s basketball semi-finals at this year’s games, for which he bought tickets in January .
“I have the impression that Japan is managing the virus very well and is taking great preventive measures. I am not afraid of it,” he told USA TODAY. “I just don’t want to be quarantined.”
He hopes things will be resolved by the time the Olympic Games are held.
“I strongly doubt that this will still be a problem in July / August, so I will continue as long as American basketball,” he said.
The fate of this year’s Olympic Games is still being weighed.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, Dick Pound, the longest serving member of the International Olympic Committee, estimated that there was a three-month window to decide the fate of this year’s games. Two days later, IOC President Thomas Bach told journalists that he will not “add fuel to the flames of speculation” and the IOC remains “fully committed to the success of the Tokyo Olympics in from July 24 “.
“We never considered canceling”: a trip to Europe is always a choice for a woman from Tennessee
Grace Boerger arrived in Germany on Saturday for her first vacation in Europe and is already on Plan C.
Her son and daughter-in-law surprised her with a two-week vacation for her birthday last fall and the trio were due to travel to Milan, Florence, Cinque Terre and Verona.
They switched to Plan B a week ago after her daughter-in-law texted her with locking news in northern Italy due to a coronavirus. The number of cases in the country jumped to 1,694 on Monday.
The revised route had the trio visiting southern Italy instead, with stops in Rome, Naples, Sorrento and Capri. But the day they arrived in Germany, where they started the journey to visit relatives there, the US State Department changed its alert level for northern Italy to its highest level , so the family decided to completely ignore Italy.
Now on the program: cross Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France and a possible trip to Belgium.
An advantage of the repeated route change: she could make two trips to Europe.
“We plan to come back next year throughout Italy LOL,” she said on Facebook Messenger on Monday.
The 49-year-old medical assistant said the family had never discussed giving up on the trip to Europe.
“We never considered canceling,” she said. “It’s not that I’m not worried, but you practice flu and cold protocols, make sure you wash your hands, use a hand sanitizer.”
Cruises and coronavirus
Cruisers around the world have watched and listened to passengers trapped on board ships in limbo or in quarantine due to fears of the coronavirus or the virus itself.
What effect does all this uncertainty have on cruisers? Are they reluctant to plan trips in the future? Do they cancel the crossings they have already booked?
When the epidemic started in early February, frequent cruise lines were already assessing the risks associated with the spread of the coronavirus. Their reactions to the news were mixed.
Carole Jones, 47, of Minnesota, completed a cruise with Carnival Cruise Line earlier this month.
Jones has six children and on previous cruises his children contracted norovirus. It changed the way they approached subsequent cruises, but didn’t stop them.
With the confined space of a cruise ship, Jones said she understands how viruses like coronavirus or norovirus can quickly get out of control. Now they take wipes to disinfect their cabin, do not eat in the buffets and try not to use public toilets on board.
“We were on the ship (Carnival) when the first quarantine took place abroad,” she said in the United States TODAY, referring to the quarantine of the Diamond Princess in Japan from February 5 to 19. “It definitely made us nervous.”
Jones’ family has another cruise scheduled in a few months which leaves California and descends the coast of Mexico. At this point, they do not plan to cancel. But neither are they determined to go.
“We didn’t (put) more money for the cruise either. We kept it at the $ 150 security deposit,” she said on Friday. Carnival Cruise Line, she added, requires a security deposit and they generally reimburse their cruises month by month. Now, however, they are waiting until the final fee deadline.
“The cruise industry is doing a great job, but something like that is new,” said Jones. “We will see where we are in three months.”
Others are determined not to let the virus prevent them from their plans.
Sylvain Plasse, a Toronto actor and cruiser who has made more than 100 crossings, told USA TODAY in a message: “We have to keep living.” He had no intention of stopping the cruise but took precautions.
“(Coronavirus) will certainly not stop me from browsing; however … I avoid Asia at all costs,” he said. Many cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line, have already canceled or changed their itineraries in Asia.
John and Melanie Haering, who experienced the Diamond Princess quarantine – who landed John in a hospital in Japan with a coronavirus – say they would go on a cruise again.
“Absolutely and even on Princess,” Melanie told USA TODAY.
“We had a horrible experience, we could potentially have died, we were separated, we felt fear, we shed a lot of tears,” said John in the United States today. “If we let this bad experience shape the way we live the rest of our lives, then it’s a bigger tragedy. One bad cruise doesn’t make them all bad.”
“We cry a lot”: American couple quarantined for separate coronavirus in Japan, United States
Quarantine of Diamond Princess cruise ships:There were faults, “was not ideal”, recognizes the Japanese panel
Travelers weighed visits to Tokyo Disneyland – then closed it
Natasha Rooney last visited Tokyo Disneyland in late January. But even if her trip had been planned for this week, she would not have canceled her plans.
But then the park announced that it would close for two weeks as a precaution against the virus, from February 29 to March 15.
“My God, I guess I would change my plans now,” Rooney told USA TODAY, adding, “I’m surprised they closed the park.”
Rooney, 36, from London, returned to the park last month with his partner after frequenting Tokyo Disneyland while living in Japan from 2014 to 2016. She remembers an epidemic of dengue fever near her home in London. and believed that the Japanese government had managed to contain this disease well.
“Japan has a reputation for being incredibly clean and careful and its healthcare system is extremely advanced,” she told USA TODAY before learning of the closure. “So I would continue to make the trip if it was planned now.”
Tokyo Disneyland, from which Disney derives royalties but belongs to and is operated by a third-party Japanese company, was the only Disney park open in Asia amid growing concerns about coronaviruses. Two Chinese parks, Shanghai Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland, have both been closed since January 25.
Although cases of coronavirus were only just beginning to increase in Japan during his visit, Rooney noticed an increase in the number of employees wearing face masks. Notices posted outside the park entrance, as well as on the Tokyo Disneyland website, asked customers to “feel bad because of cold symptoms” to refrain from visiting and asked anyone who did not feel well in the park to warn an employee.
In his spare time, Rooney runs a travel YouTube channel dedicated to Japan and Disney parks around the world. Through discussions with other fans, she heard from many who were still planning trips to Tokyo Park and some who were reconsidering.
Before the closure was announced, she estimated that 15% to 20% of the people she spoke to had either canceled their trip, or were seriously considering doing so. “I always recommend that people do what’s right for them, and if they have pre-existing illnesses or are traveling with seniors, then maybe consider canceling.”
One of those people who canceled their trip: John Connell, who decided to cancel a planned family vacation in the Japanese capital and Tokyo Disneyland after seeing last week that entry to the next Tokyo marathon would be limited to a few hundred elite participants due to coronavirus problems.
For him, the decision to cancel made sense from a health point of view, but now results in tedious back and forth with the flight booking agents, who only offered to reimburse a fraction of the amount. money he had spent on plane tickets.
“When they started canceling public events, we decided it was a risk we didn’t want to take, especially when we were traveling with a young child,” added Connell, 40, from Wirral, England. . “My sister-in-law lives in Japan and supported our decision not to go, even though she said things don’t look too bad there.”
And how does the Mouse House see the impact of the coronavirus on its parks? New Disney CEO Bob Chapek – announced Tuesday as Bob Iger’s successor – recently told CNBC that the impact of the coronavirus on Disney Parks and Cruises is “certainly a bump in the road,” but he believes the strength of the Disney brand “will survive any short-lived type” of coronavirus.
“This does not mean that we will not be surprised tomorrow, but we have the strength to overcome them all,” he added.
“It was going to be beautiful”: the concern of the coronavirus foils the trip to Japan with a child
Susannah Darrow developed her family’s plans at the end of last summer. She, her husband and her 4-year-old daughter would spend the last week of March and the first week of April in Japan, Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.
“It was going to be beautiful,” said Darrow, who runs a consulting firm in Atlanta. “We were very excited.”
But in recent weeks, Darrow has continued to see news about the spread of the coronavirus and has wondered if she might need to change this plan.
Then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an alert for Japan advising travelers to “take extra precautions”.
That was enough for Darrow to cancel the trip, not wanting to risk exposing his young daughter to an unpredictable situation.
“If it had been only us, we might have been less likely to cancel,” she said, adding that she and her husband had considered leaving their daughter with her grandparents.
Instead, the three will fly to Los Angeles, which was originally intended to be their springboard to Japan, rent a car, and drive along the Pacific coast to the Canadian border.
“We have friends at different places along the way,” she said.
Darrow said she will have to eat the price of a hotel room. But the couple, who travel often, booked other accommodation in Japan via Airbnb, which they were able to cancel without penalty.
What about transpacific flight?
“It was a stroke of luck,” she said. “For once in my life, I insured the plane ticket. We can get it back.”
Darrow said his daughter, whose safety motivated her decision to give up the trip to Japan, is looking forward to their adventure, even if it is different.
“She’s fine anywhere,” said Darrow. “She will be excited anyway.”
The Disney world:Workers who traveled to Italy to stay at home despite fears of coronaviruses
Contributor: The Associated Press