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Zika Virus Has Minimal Impact on Canadian Travel Plans

January 31st, 2016  |  Canadian Business

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the Zika virus is “spreading explosively”, but Canadian travellers don’t seem too concerned. In fact, travel industry experts don’t believe that fear of the Zika virus is having much effect on traveller behaviour at all.

At this point in time, various medical experts say the risk of Canadians contracting the virus is low. Pregnant women have been singled out as the most at-risk group. However, while many pregnant travellers are changing their trip plans, travel agents claim that they have not seen large numbers of cancellation requests.

Voices in the industry tell CBC News that they haven’t detected correlations between current travel trends and the virus. The outbreak is prominent in Central and South American countries, like Brazil, but these aren’t popular destinations for Canadian travellers anyway.

Travellers are more concerned about the low loonie. In fact, their travel plans reportedly hinge more on the conversion rate than on the spread of the Zika virus.

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