School party in swine flu quarantine in China
Updated on 18 July 2009
A total of 52 British schoolchildren and their teachers are being quarantined inside a Beijing hotel, after four of them came down with swine flu.
They were part of an international group of young visitors in China to learn about its culture and language. Four American children who had been in contact with the British group were also diagnosed with the virus.
Meanwhile, there are signs visitors may be put off coming to Britain because of the virus.
Students from around the world come to summer language schools here to learn English and absorb British culture, but what they do not want to take back with them is the H1N1 virus.
Many language schools are now reporting significant numbers of cancellations due to swine flu. Icep World, an agency that books language courses in the UK for adults and children, says 10 per cent of their bookings have been scrapped at the last minute.
Almost all of these cases were parents willing to forfeit their deposits rather than send their children to the UK, where they feared they could catch swine flu.
With infections rising, the UK now has the third highest number of cases worldwide after the US and Mexico, and some tour companies - particularly those operating trips from China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Greece - have seen whole groups scrap their trips to Britain.
Around the world there is no offical advice against travelling to Britain, but certain countries appear to have a greater fear of this illness than others.
Last week the Palestinian National Authority's top cleric issued a fatwa requiring couples to prove they are not suffering from swine flu before getting married.
Greek and Turkish media seem to be playing up the risk, especially cases in Britain, while India has warned against travel to western countries.
In China, recent memories of Sars and bird flu seem to have led to heightened fears over swine flu.
Cathay Pacific airline, which flies to Heathrow, saw a sharp fall in passengers in June. The company explicitly blamed the H1N1 outbreak as one of the causes, and said the virus had had a particularly severe impact on Hong Kong and Japanese routes.
Chinese worries about swine flu have also affected Britons wanting to travel there.
Bethany Doran was planning to spend her summer teaching at a Hong Kong-based camp run by Oxbridge Summer Camps Abroad. But the whole trip had to be cancelled after their host schools in China became unwilling to risk a case of swine flu. The decision left 60 volunteers with their summer plans in disarray and cost the student-run organisation and their partners more than £10,000.
It's hard to assess the true effect of swine flu on UK tourism alongside the economic downturn, and VisitBritain has launched a survey this week to try to guage the impact. But if infections continue at the current rate, it might be a case of people not being able to travel rather than not wanting to.
