By Stephen McKinley
It causes blisters and lesions on the mouths and hoofs of farm animals — and now it is making Irish and American travel and holiday operators break out in a cold sweat.
Foot-and-mouth disease has been found in several hundred animals in Britain and two cases in Ireland — one in County Armagh and one in County Louth. It is an extremely infectious disease that debilitates farm animals and can be spread on shoes, car wheels, and even by the wind. It is controllable only by a complicated vaccination process or mass slaughter.
With movement restrictions in rural parts of Ireland and Britain in an attempt to stop the disease spreading, there has been a wave of cancellations of flights, accommodation, car rental and tours to Britain and Ireland, as vacationers react in confusion to the virulent disease.
Already, there have been instances of tourists confusing foot-and-mouth disease with recent cases of the very different Mad Cow Disease (BSE) in Britain. The much more elusive and uncommon mad cow disease may possibly affect humans, but FMD has no effect on humans.
However, Irish tourism has caught FMD badly. The industry, according to Irish government figures, constitutes 4 percent of Ireland’s GDP, and directly employs more than 150,000 people. If, as scientists in Britain are predicting, the outbreak of the disease continues on into the summer months, the effect on Irish tourism and the economy will be devastating.
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With that fearful thought in mind, politicians and industry chiefs on both sides of the Atlantic have been trying to reassure travelers and holiday makers that, as the Irish Tourist Board, Bord Failte, in New York, puts it: "Ireland is open for business, for pleasure, for you."
The most recent statement released by Bord Failte in New York states that FMD is causing minimal disruption to people traveling to Ireland for vacation and business purposes. Visitors should not fear the disease, says Jim McGuigan, the Board’s executive vice president, indicating that his office had received calls from tourists who were confusing FMD and mad cow disease.
"Nearly all accommodations and attractions are open," he said. "According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, foot and mouth disease poses no threat to human beings and does not affect food safety."
The Northern Irish Tourist Board message has been similarly positive. Spokesperson Paul McDonagh said his New York office has been telling people that it was "still business as usual."
"Towns and cities are still open," he said. "Possibly the U.S. media has made things more confusing by confusing the suspected mad cow disease in sheep found in Vermont with foot and mouth disease."
The response, as far as the NITB is concerned, is to reassure people. "Hotels are reporting cancellations," he said, "but so far it’s mostly UK business that has gone down."
Airline cuts prices
If Ireland is open for business and pleasure, it is also going to be cheaper to get to as well. Aer Lingus has announced fare cuts in effect beginning Wednesday in order to stimulate business. But Brian Murphy, speaking for the airline, said that it had been a range of factors that had prompted the fare cuts.
"We had taken the decision early last week, before the foot-and-mouth case was found in County Louth," he said. "It is not just foot-and-mouth disease. The economy and the stock market are down, so we would have been making such decisions anyway, without foot and mouth."
Some private tour operators have been using strong language to get the message across that it is safe to travel in Ireland. Brian Stack, president of CIE tours in New Jersey, the largest provider of tours to Ireland in the U.S., issued an e-mail to his staff in which he stated: "There is no reason whatsoever for clients to cancel their CIE Tours vacation to Ireland or Britain."
Stack said that CIE had modified certain itineraries to avoid some rural attractions, but that even tours involving the Ring of Kerry and other countryside attractions would be going ahead.
At Brian Moore Tours in Boston, the message was the same, although a spokesperson admitted that there had been disappointed customers on Monday who had learned that the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim was off-limits for the time being.
Louth reels
While American tour operators are sending out an upbeat message, the picture for holiday and tourist industries in Ireland is much bleaker. The full horror of FMD arriving on one’s doorstep was described by Tom McCardle, owner and manager of the Carlingford Activity Center, in County Louth. McCardle’s Center is on the Cooley Peninsula, seven miles from the site of the first case of FMD in the Republic.
The center offers comprehensive outdoor activity holiday packages, including hiking, trailwalking, biking and climbing, all activities that could potentially help spread FMD, as it can be carried on the shoes of humans.
"They put a cordon around the whole area," he said, speaking on the phone from Louth. "There is no movement of animals and limited movement of people. Our business is already down 80 percent in a few days."
By this time of year, Carlingford Activity Center should be getting many bookings from the U.S. as well as Europe and Australia. Now, McCardle says, "we have to batten down the hatches." So far, the banks have been understanding, he said, but for how long, he did not know. Immediately after the FMD case was found, the government imposed a ban on all activities that could spread the disease. McCardle was taking slight comfort in the fact that his center and other holiday centers in the area had been issued with limited licenses to allow visitors access to beaches and water sports, such as windsurfing. But McCardle was bleak in the face of a disaster where there is not even the satisfaction of having someone to blame.
"The government may have acted a little slowly at first," he said, but praised it for their actions in trying to keep FMD out of the Republic.
In response to the plight of people like McCardle, the government has approved an aid package to assist County Louth in the event of a disastrous year. Minister for Tourism Dr. Jim McDaid approved the relief package on Sunday after speaking to representatives of the tourist sector in Louth, who outlined the possibility of bankruptcy if the FMD crisis does drag on into the summer.
In the U.S., some tourist industries have been hit harder than others. Attracta Lyndon, speaking for Dan Dooley car rentals, described one substantial loss last week.
"Our biggest blow last week was the cancellation of the World Irish Dancing Championship in Ireland, which was to have been held in Ennis. That was 1,500 people, or so, all cancelled. Other people are changing their dates to later in the year, and our message is getting across — yes, you can drive a car around Ireland still, if you take certain precautions," Lyndon said.
She also had had cases of tourists calling her who had clearly confused FMD with mad cow disease. She added that the loss of the dancing championships would be a bigger blow for many of the children, who may not get a chance to enter for another year.
One recent visitor to Ireland who returned on March 18 said that during the week he spent in Ireland it was clear that towns and cities were largely unaffected by the crisis, and that traveling between urban centers was unrestricted. Dermot Murray was on an educational visit with fellow students from the Columbia University Business School.
"You had to step on disinfectant mats, but that didn’t really slow us down," he said.