As the coronavirus spreads across Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Britons are scrambling to change their travel plans – with varying levels of success.
“We’re feeling very frustrated and fed-up,” said a woman from Surrey, who preferred not to be named, and whose family had booked a “holiday of a lifetime” in Hong Kong, Thailand and Laos this Easter.
Deciding they did not want to expose themselves to the risk of being taken ill, or a fortnight in quarantine upon their return, they have cancelled their trip.
“We’ve probably lost £2,000 in internal flights and accommodation in Asia,” she said. “When we first spoke to our travel agent about the coronavirus they were very dismissive about it, saying people are in China still doing trips, but do you really want to spend three weeks with a face mask on?”
The Foreign Office (FCO) has so far held back from advising against essential travel in Asia, besides mainland China, and this is hampering attempts to be reimbursed by people who cancelled holidays.
Clive Paul, a 71-year-old retiree, cancelled his holiday to Singapore and Australia on Monday amid intensified news coverage about the outbreak. He is set to lose about £2,500.
“My insurance company will not refund anything unless the FCO tells tourists not to enter the country,” he said.
“I haven’t got money to throw away but my wife and I had to make a decision. There’s probably a very small risk flying out there but who knows. Better to be safe than sorry. It’s a long flight, we don’t want to risk it. I’m gutted.”
Michael Green, from Rossendale in Lancashire, got about halfway through his holiday before it was cut short.
He was on the Majestic Princess cruise ship having a “wonderful time” along the coast of Australia with his wife Pamela for their 40th wedding anniversary, before they were told the voyage would end in Perth.
“We should be on that same ship in the Indian Ocean on the way to Penang,” he said. “They’ve given us a 50% refund and a 50% discount on an equivalent trip, but it virtually wrecked our holiday which we have spent 18 months saving for and planning.”
Recent graduate Ludovic Gardner, 21, worked at Portsmouth city council to pay for six months travelling.
Along with five friends, he had booked a trip from Moscow along the trans-Mongolian railway to Beijing and Shanghai and then planned to go to Tokyo.
“We had all our accommodation and flights to Japan booked, but because of restrictions placed on those who have been to China it’s now all up in the air,” he said.
“We cancelled our visit to China and flights to Japan, but our refund from Peach Aviation can only be spent on flights from China, so it’s not really a refund at all.”
Prof Loughlin Sweeney, who has been carrying out research in the UK, said he had no choice but to return to South Korea, where he lives and works.
“The university semester in Korea will now be starting two weeks late, and some of our students will be quarantined,” he said.
En route back to his home in Seoul he will be attempting to minimise contact with the “outside world” since he is acutely aware he is running a “possibly unnecessary risk by travelling back into an infection zone” – though Sweeney’s colleagues in Korea assure him they are safe.
“The only scary thing about it is what we don’t yet know about the virus,” he said. “Hopefully the fatality rate won’t climb any higher.”
Karisa Lundberg, 31, an American who lives in London, is urging people to reclaim a sense of perspective. On Friday she is heading to Verona, in northern Italy, about an hour’s drive from the centres of the coronavirus outbreaks in the country, for her partner’s birthday.
“Your chance of running into the 0.0007% of the local population who have contracted the virus is incredibly slim,” she said. “I’m more likely to be hit by a bus outside than contracting coronavirus.”