was dengue

And then there was dengue

By Lisa Williams

The Cook Islands money-spinning

holiday destination industry has

lost valuable dollars because of the shadow cast by a two-month long

dengue epidemic.

Air New Zealand manager Barry Hardy says potential visitors to the country are choosing to fly over and on to other destinations because of the six letter word and its image.

Another tour agent says a visiting cruiser cancelled plants to visit after hearing of the outbreak, even though only a few tourists came into contact with dengue about a month back.

A health official says their symptoms were so mild they did not have to be admitted for treatment.

As it is, hotel and other tourist accommodation are probably the best place to be if you don’t want to face the risk of dengue.

Virtually all cases are from homes close to swamp areas or with verdant gardens. Health warnings over keeping garden cans and plant holders close to homes are still continuing even as cases climbed to 340 by the beginning of May.

And while the concern from overseas holiday makers continues to affect the local industry, doctors are concentrating on making the treatment available and flying in three consignments of medi cine every week to help keep the hospital numbers under control.

The good news has yet to make

much of an impact overseas where the bookings from New Zealand and other regions tuned in to local events have taken a slight drop.

The manager of the Air New Zealand service bringing most of the tourists in says some potential tourists from Hawaii are flying over Raro. In pre dengue times-they would have spent a stopover and a few dollars there.

Tourism Director Chris Wong says media attention to the dengue outbreak is more powerful than the control of the outbreak in the local health system.

‘Yes, it very worrying - in terms of the average visitor not 0 fully understand mg dengue as treatable.”

“Yes, it is worrying - in the terms of the average visitor not fully understand ing dengue outbreak is more powerful than the control of the outbreak in the local health system.

“Yes, it is worrying - in terms of the average visitor not fully understanding

dengue as treatable,” he says.

“Their perception of the disease may be quite wrong because they don’t fully understand it - that’s a deterrent. It depends on how the message is getting out - I am assured by the Secretary for Hotels that visitors should not worry about it because they live in hotels which tend to be kept very clean.”

He says the image of dengue here is no worse than the image of malaria for Vanuatu and the Solomons - “in any case, the industry can handle it”.

Agents have been loath to blame the drop in visitor arrivals on a mosquito pest, claiming its only another brick through a tourism window already cracked by accusations over the Letters of Guarantee, currency problems only recently solved by the announcement of a return to the New Zealand dollar as the Cooks currency, and news of hard times for the economy.

The dengue outbreak is restricted to the country’s capital Rarotonga, where almost 350 people have received treat ment between March and April for the mosquito-borne illness which leaves sufferers weak, nauseous and with a total loss of appetite.

Some health officials are predicting numbers will soon drop as the outbreak slows itself and the dengue-carrying mosquitoes fail to cope with the cooler nights and dry spells. For tourism oper ators in the Cooks multi-million dollar industry, that moment can’t come fast enough. ■