Brunei alert over the latest epidemic

With alarming reports on the recent fatal bird flu virus in our neighbouring countries, consumers here in Brunei seem to be unperturbed.

So far, they show no sign of the type of panic that devastated the travel and tourism industry in Asian regions as seen during height of the SARS pandemic last year. That is assuming, of course, that our country continues to be clear of the flu and that the virus still shows no sign of being transmitted from human to human.

In interviews with the Sultanate's travel agencies, several top operators, who are more vigilant after the recent outbreak, told RTB Consumer researchers that current widespread of the virus has yet to hit sales of tickets and they are keeping their fingers crossed that it will stay that way.

Manager of the Century travel agency said that so far, they have not seen any cancellations or postponements of trips to regions like Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia or China.

"At this time of the year, especially now the beginning of new school terms, it is traditionally a non-peak period, but we haven't seen any sudden changes and slowdown in bookings. However, many consumers flying to the affected countries are requesting all chicken meat dishes to be substituted with beef or seafood.

"To gain our consumers' confidence, agencies are carefully monitoring the situation and making sure that the airlines are not just serving any chicken meat, but only those which are deemed safe," said its manager, Mr Foo.

Thai Airways and some other airlines have dropped chicken from their in-flight menus. In an interview with the General Manager of Thai Airways, Mr Korakot Chatasingha, he assured consumers in Brunei that their airline has now removed chicken meals from its flights.

Singapore Airlines has also removed chicken meals on flights originating from countries where the outbreak has been reported. In a statement and according to AP news agency, SIA has also ensured that chickens supplied for its onboard meals didn't come from bird flu-affected countries.

Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA), in its latest press release, also assured consumers that it has stringent control systems in place to ensure its in-flight meals are safe for consumption at all times.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin