Will Swine flu affect your ski holiday?

Today the papers are all full of the stories of airlines and cruise companies refusing to carry passengers with any signs of swine flu. Of course this includes anyone with just a common cold or cough, as so far the symptoms are proving similar. Of course in confined areas such as a plane or ship then the virus has far more potential to carry to other passengers than in a normal situation.

Yesterday the Government has released some new advice with regards to swine flu telling people not to travel home from abroad if they were suffering from the H1N1 virus. Personally I don’t think that sounds like a bad thing especially if you’re just returning to a desk job. But onto more serious points!

Closer to the ski industry is the fact that around 50 now have the bug at a summer school in Verbier, which incidentally was the venue for yesterday’s Tour de France finish, no doubt the summer school has been locked down with all the media presence. It’s currently all quite mild and no serious cases have presented.

Of course what’s happening in Switzerland is no different to the reports of Swine Flu around the globe.

Figures up to date as of 20th July, sourced from the BBC.

From these figures it looks like you are safer travelling to Europe than you are staying in the UK at the moment. The population size and spread of the countries obviously affect the proportional number of cases.

How swine flu affects the ski industry is yet to be seen, although current reports are that we are a couple of months away from the peak of the pandemic so we should know more, just about when everyone is planning to book their ski holidays, or not, as the case may be.