Cruise Ships Divert To San Diego; So Does Swine Flu

The swine flu outbreak in Mexico is causing several cruise ships to divert to San Diego, where it’s hoped that passengers will drop a lot of cash, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

These ships are diverting from ports on the West Coast of Mexico where, so far, there have been no reported cases of swine flu. See Google’s swine flu mashup for details.

There have been two fatal cases in Tijuana, right on the U.S. border. But no other cases have been reported down the coast (yet) in Cabo San Lucas, Ensanada, Mazatlan, Acapulco or Puerto Vallarta, the Mexican ports on the West Coast that cruise ships are avoiding, as CruiseMates points out..

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed swine flu cases in California has reached 14, with seven in San Diego County. Twenty-nine more cases are suspected, including eight in San Diego County, according to the California Department of Public Health.

I’m not saying that the West Coast of Mexico is safer than San Diego, or that the cruise lines have acted unreasonably. The Centers for Disease Control has warned against nonessential travel to Mexico, after all.

The flu is certainly not widespread in California at this point, and symptoms in cases there have been less severe than in Mexico. Nobody has died. Furthermore, we don’t know how thoroughly, accurately and quickly statistics are being reported, in any country.

But we can be reasonably sure that viruses care nothing for borders and that, in any event, the swine flu has already spread into all three countries of North America. This is not a “Mexican” flu. It’s the world’s flu, and we’re all going to have to cope with it, whether we want to or not.

Meanwhile, if you have a cruise planned to Mexico, Gene Sloan at USA Today’s Cruise Log is keeping a thorough tally of itinerary changes.

Airlines Waiving Change Fees On Mexico Travel

The Centers for Disease Control is advising postponement of nonessential travel to Mexico, and all major U.S. airlines are allowing ticketed customers to postpone their trips or change their destinations, at least for the next few weeks.

European airlines are doing the same, Bloomerg reports.

Nobody is offering refunds because of the swine flu. But most airlines are permitting passengers who hold tickets for travel to Mexico within a specified period (which varies by airline) to reschedule the same routing or to apply the value of the ticket to a new destination within one year. In other words, if you’re not sure what you want to do, you can cancel the trip in return for a voucher equal to the cost of the ticket and good for one year.

Read the rest of this entry »

Passengers Drop Deck Furniture On Pirates

It is deeply disturbing that the seas are not safe from piracy in 2009, but somehow heartening to read about cruise ship passengers throwing tables and chairs onto the pirates trying to board their ship.

The Australian newspaper The Age reports that passengers “threw plastic tables and chairs at AK-47-wielding pirates who were trying to board” the MSC Melody off the East Coast of Africa over the weekend. The ship’s security forces returned fire from the pirates, who were driven off.

A Spanish warship responded to the cruise ship’s distress call, chased down and captured nine Somalis suspected in the attack and turned them over to the Seychelles Coast Guard, according to Reuters.

The attack occurred 650 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, outside the area where pirates normally operate. The CEO of the company that owns the Melody said it will no longer route ships along the East Coast of Africa, The Australian reports.

Travel Stocks Dropping On Swine Flu Fears

The stocks of airlines, hotels and other travel-related companies are dropping on Wall Street this morning after similar declines in Asia, the Associated Press reports:

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc. fell 8.7 percent; Carnival Corp. fell 8.8 percent; and AMR Corp., the parent company of American Airlines, fell 14.4 percent.

It’s not clear why U.S. residents who have the disease, many of them during travels in Mexico, have all contracted relatively mild cases. None have died, even though the disease is suspected of killing more than 100 people in Mexico.

The effect is likely to be devastating on tourism in Mexico, which is already being hammered by the recession and concerns about drug-related violence, the British newspaper The Guardian reports.

Not helpful in that regard is the suggestion from an Israeli health official, reported by the Associated Press, that the virus be called “the Mexican flu” in deference to who find swine offensive for religious reasons. While the flu might have originated in Mexico, it was first identified in the United States and is now popping up worldwide.

A Visitors’ Guide To Driving In Southern California

A guest entry from the kid, Kate Symmonds:

If you’re thinking about taking a trip to Southern California, you’ll need to rent a car.  And you’ll need some survival tips.

After three years in Montreal, I figured that moving to San Diego would make me a happier, more relaxed person.  And I really have almost forgotten what it feels like to step outside in negative 40-degree weather and have tears of pain freeze to my face. I’ve noticed, however, that I can’t get into my car without tensing up. This is because my personal hell is driving on the freeways of Southern California. And I do it every day.

So if you’re coming to Southern California (which I would vaguely define as anywhere between and including San Diego and Santa Barbara counties), I have some advice.

Read the rest of this entry »

State Slogans: Studies In Lameness

Gail Collins had an excellent column yesterday about state tourism slogans, focusing on Wisconsin’s new one: “Live Like You Mean It.”

I’m fascinated by the amounts of money spent to come up with slogans like that. It seems like a very attractive line of work. Wisconsin spent $50,000 to get those five words strung together — and the phrase had already been used in a Bacardi ad.

Give me $25,000 and a six-pack, and I’ll come up with something equally lame. In fact, I thought up this slogan for Connecticut without the beer: ”Where insurance comes from.”

Swine Flu Kills At Least 20 In Mexico

Mexican authorities, trying to contain a swine flu virus now blamed for at least 20 deaths, have shut down ”schools, museums, libraries and state-run theaters” in Mexico City, the Associated Press reports.

Another 40 deaths are being analyzed to determine whether they were caused by the flu, and 943 people are reported hospitalized with symptoms. It’s not clear whether recent flu vaccinations will protect against this strain, but Mexican authorities believe antiviral medications are proving effective.

Meanwhile, Mexican news Web sites are full of pictures of people wearing surgical masks on the streets. And there’s even talk of canceling soccer games.

Eight people in Texas and California came down with the same virus, but have recovered.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has issued a travel advisory that warns of ”a severe respiratory illness” in Mexico, the CBC reports. I’ve seen no advisory yet from the U.S. government. The AP reports that “the CDC said Americans need not avoid traveling to Mexico, as long as they take the usual precautions, such as frequent handwashing.”

Data Released On Planes Hitting Birds — And Other Critters

On Sept. 9, 2007, a Southwest Airlines 737 taxiing at Bradley International Airport ran over a skunk.

This is not exactly the kind of data I was expecting from the National Wildlife Strike Database, which everyone has been calling a “bird-strike” database, but it sure is interesting. Turns out that in the past 17 years, pilots have also reported 13 encounters with white-tailed deer in Connecticut, although mostly at small, general aviation airports. In some cases the aircraft didn’t actually hit the animal but had to abort a takeoff or swerve on the runway.

The FAA released the complete wildlife strike database online this morning, after abandoning the ridiculous argument that some of the details should be kept confidential. Aggregate information had been released previously, but airlines and airports were not identified.

The bird-strike data is interesting. Very few incidents at Bradley have involved any damage to aircraft, although the last 12 months of data (through November 2008) show an incident in which a bird strike cracked the windshield of a United Airlines A320 and a seagull bent the fan blades of a Southwest 737.

It’s not easy, though, to get a complete picture of the problem or to compare data. Reporting looks uneven. For example, in the last 12 months of data from Bradley, Southwest reported eight strikes and Delta, the other big carrier there, reported only one. Whether this reflects luck or differences in reporting protocols is hard to say.

Also, in many cases the only report comes from the discovery of a carcass, yielding no information about what hit it. If anybody wants to own up to hitting that raccoon … 

Putting The Tax Squeeze On The Tourists

The Hawaii legislature has passed a bill to raise hotel room taxes, but Gov. Linda Lingle is expected to veto it, the Honolulu Advertiser reports.

Not so much in Nevada, where Gov. Jim Gibbons is allowing an increase in the room tax to become law without his signature. On July 1, the room tax rate will increase from 9 percent to 12 percent, as the Las Vegas Sun reported last month.

In Hawaii, the room tax would rise from 7.25 percent to 8.25 percent in July and to 9.25 percent in July 2010 under the bill passed Wednesday. The legislature also passed tax increases on incomes of more than $150,000 a year and on tobacco products.

The issue is the same in Hawaii and Nevada. The economic slump is really slamming states that rely on tourism for tax revenue, and the temptation is to slam tourists back. But the wisdom of raising taxes on a dwindling tax base is questionable at best. Tourists have an option that residents don’t — they can stay away.

Hawaii’s hotel occupancy rates are already way down. They were 12.4 percent lower in February from a year earlier, hitting 75 percent, the lowest point in 18 years, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Occupancy was off only 5.5 percentage points to 83.9 percent during the same period in Las Vegas, but gaming revenues were down 14 percent, the Las Vegas Sun reports.

Raising taxes on visitors is unlikely to increase tourism. But the money has to come from somewhere.

Woman Paralyzed By Turbulence Injuries

A woman who was slammed into the ceiling of the lavatory on a Continental 737 by turbulence last week remains in a Texas hospital, paralyzed by her injuries, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Seat belts should be worn as the default position for any passenger on any aircraft at any time, regardless of whether the seat belt sign is lighted. (It was.)

But the reason this woman wasn’t wearing her seat belt is obvious.

Some heartless commenters on message boards blame her for being out of her seat but, really, if you had to go, you’d go.To those who believe better “planning” will allow everyone to regulate these needs perfectly, can you really swear that you were never, ever in your life seized by the urgent need for a bathroom?

I didn’t think so.