'Fingers crossed' for tourist industry as flu fears take hold

George Hickton. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

It is too soon to tell what impact the outbreak of swine flu will have on New Zealand's $20 billion tourism industry, experts say.

New Zealand yesterday became one of four countries affected by the virus after a group of high school students tested positive for influenza A - of which swine flu is a subset - after travelling to Mexico.

Mexican health officials say swine flu has killed up to 86 people and probably made about 1400 ill there since April 13. Canada and the United States have also reported cases.

The New Zealand dollar fell yesterday from US57.21 to US56.43c, but was still slightly up on Friday's close of US56.20c. Currency experts said swine flu was being talked about but was not likely to be the main driver of the fall.

Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton said it was too early to speculate on what effect the outbreak might have.

The marketing body had put all its international staff on alert to ensure people were being told the correct information about how New Zealand was being affected, but so far it had not received any calls from the public.

"It really is far too early to tell."

An outbreak was the last thing the industry needed, given the already tough conditions, Hickton said. But one positive was that New Zealand was now going into its low season for visitors and Mexico was a very small source of visitors.

Only 944 people from Mexico visited New Zealand last year out of more than 2.45 million people.

Tourism Industry Association chief Tim Cossar said the industry body had received a few calls from businesses concerned about the flu but the numbers were not excessive.

The association was doing all it could to keep members informed.

"Certainly what we have seen is not a reason to panic but anything like this is taken seriously."

Cossar said anything that could potentially put a barrier on getting people on to planes was an issue but it was still a matter of "watch this space" at the moment.

Inbound Tour Operators Council chief executive Paul Yeo said the situation seemed to be under control in New Zealand.

"At the current stage I don't see any impact at all, but we are obviously watching with interest."

Yeo said the wider issue was whether the flu became widespread and had an impact on global travel.

"Fingers crossed something like that doesn't happen."

The last time New Zealand tourism was hit significantly by a pandemic was after the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). Overall visitor numbers dropped during May, June and July 2003 after a World Health Organisation warning in March.

But a more prolonged impact was from Asia, where the flu originated. Chinese tourists plummeted 63.7 per cent in June 2003 after their Government told its officials not to travel.