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Destinations known‘Coronavirus crisis tourists’: fleeing the pandemic is not only selfish, it’s a privilege only the rich can afford

From Australia and South Korea to France and the US, people are trying to escape the pandemic while incorporating a holiday at the same time

This potentially aids the spread of the virus, places the destinations they travel to at greater risk and is nothing short of irresponsible

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In February, thousands of Chinese tourists opted to stay on the Indonesian island of Bali rather than return home. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:45am, 8 Apr 2020Updated: 12:57pm, 8 Apr 2020

Unlike those who travel to a destination for dental work, to embark on an adventure or to retreat from reality on a detox, “crisis tourists” do not journey towards something, instead they head in the other direction, and, if possible, incorporate a holiday while doing so. But when the disaster being fled is a pandemic, going anywhere at all is nothing short of irresponsible.

In early February, after the Indonesian government temporarily banned direct flights to and from mainland China and withdrew visa-free entry for the nation’s citizens, Chinese travellers found themselves at the vanguard of what Destinations Known is calling “coronavirus crisis tourism”, albeit accidentally. Suddenly without a way home, about 3,000 holidaymakers found themselves “stranded” on Bali. But when Beijing organised repatriation flights to transport them home on February 8, just 61 accepted the offer, according to an AFP report.

Those who stayed “appeared happy to extend their holiday”, news agency AFP noted. By then, China’s Hubei province, where the virus is believed to have originated, had gone into lockdown, a measure that would be extended, to some degree, to other provinces and cities across the vast country. Almost 800 deaths had been recorded, tens of thousands had been sickened by Covid-19, and ophthalmologist Li Wenliang, the doctor who warned his colleagues about a worrying Sars-like virus only to be reprimanded for his actions, had died. Bali surely felt a million miles from the catastrophe, so who can blame anyone for sitting tight?

Two visitors to South Korea’s Jeju Island are being sued after holidaying on the island while one was supposed to be self-isolating at home. Photo: Shutterstock

Admittedly, staying away from calamity is not the same as running from it. Perhaps the actual pioneers of coronavirus crisis tourism were those who decamped to Europe and North America to avoid Asia’s first wave of infections, only to return once their havens were no longer “safe”, in some cases bringing Covid-19 back with them.

On South Korea’s Jeju Island, a mother and daughter who visited for holiday last month are being sued after ignoring advice that the latter enter self-quarantine, having recently returned from the United States, where she was a student. A day after arriving on the island, the daughter started showing symptoms of Covid-19, and both tested positive for the disease upon their return home to Seoul’s affluent Gangnam district, CNN reported. Over the course of their five-day holiday, the pair had had contact with an estimated 47 people in 20 places.