Originally Posted by
AirCanada881
Hi all
Like most, I'm curious about the current situation in Japan with the coronavirus, & I don't mean to take benefit from the outbreak, but I have two questions:
- Are any of you cancelling trips to Japan due to the outbreak? Should we? Or is the situation locally overhyped?
- Should we expect any decrease in accomodation prices due to the decrease of tourism? (Ryokans, and others)
I'm due for a trip to the Kansai region for 3 weeks late April, so obviously alot can happen until then but I haven't book any accomodation yet & I know I'm running late.
Thanks all for your sound advice
We were supposed to be in Jpn this past week, supposed to be flying back today.
We cancelled the trip. In retrospect, I'm glad we did.
I was never worried about catching the covid 19 virus, as that is statistically such miniscule chance.
However, I was quite worried about the potential of new government restrictions that could affect our ability to get back into US and get back to work/school on time. Indeed, just within the last couple days, we are seeing that India is now requiring health screening on all pax coming in from Jpn and we have seen both US (our home country) and Taiwan (what was supposed to be our transit country) raise travel warning level for Jpn. Today would've been the day we're flying back from Jpn. I've had reactive airway type thing for the past 2 months that hasn't gone away. I'd have been constantly hounding my kids not to touch their faces (not so much to avoid getting covid 19, but much more so to not get any cold/infection in general that might end up being red flags to health/quarantine officers at airport). We didn't go to Jpn, but anyways my daughter is coughing and sniffling now. Thank goodness we don't have to worry about passing through health screen upon arrival from Jpn today.
So to have all those things to worry about, needing to stay away from hotel buffets, needing to wear masks, etc, etc... it just wasn't worth it for me in the end.
This past week was a school vacation week and, since we live in an area with high % of Asians, we knew quite a few families who had planned vacation to Asia this past week. As far as I've heard, no one actually ended up going (ie, everyone cancelled).
Anyways, late April is still ways away. I would just keep an eye on things, especially what new restrictions your country and your transit country (if any) may be imposing. Things could have died down or be far worse by then. I cancelled my trip just a couple days before the slated start of the trip. I waited as long as possible, and I'd advise you to do the same. The only downside to that was that, by then, the airfare for our alternate vacation had skyrocketed.