Lawton_The swine flu outbreak has travelers worried. They're calling travel agencies wondering if it's safe to go to Mexico because that's where this latest bout of swine flu started. Lawton's Adventure Travel Agency took around 30 calls Tuesday. Then Wednesday morning, they took more than 20 calls before noon. Many are residents who've already booked their trips south of the border.
Travel agent George Johnsen said right now they're telling travelers to take a "wait and see" approach. He tells 7NEWS if you want to go to Mexico, go ahead and book your trip, but to protect yourself and your wallet, by buying travel insurance.
Right now, Johnsen said they don't have a lot of solid answers yet and the State Department hasn't closed the border. "If they close the border and they're not able to have you go across the border then they're going to have to refund your money because they can't fulfill their part of the travel contract
He said most tour companies are letting people make changes through May 6th, but beyond that he said "we haven't gotten any guidance from them on what their policies are going to be."
So what if they do close the border and you're already there--what then? "I'm sure if they had U.S. nationals down there they would make some provision for them to have quarantine or something to come into the country. I don't think they'd leave them in limbo down there," said Johnsen. He said he can't know that for sure.
The biggest problem today is for the folks who've already booked, who haven't left yet, and didn't buy trip insurance. "We're at the mercy of the tour company at this point to see what their policy is going to be," said Johnsen.
He said depending on where you go, most travel insurance will cost you $120 or less. "Do they wanna take the financial hit to change and cancel?" Johnsen said if you wait, there's a chance the tour companies may revise policies to allow cancellations beyond May 6th.
Johnsen said Mexico was already having a tough time. He said some travelers were already avoiding the country because of the violence earlier this year.
