Travel Experts On The Impact Travel Restrictions Will Have On The Industry

Some of the countries affected by the restrictions are Poland, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland

FARGO, N.D.- Travel experts are saying they still don’t know what the impact will be when the travel restriction on some European countries is put into effect on Friday.

“It’s hard to quantify at this time, but we’ll certainly know here over the next coming weeks how much will be impacted in total passenger volume for the month of March,” Executive Director at Hector International Airport Shawn A. Dobberstein says.

The airport has stepped up their cleaning efforts to keep the Corona virus at bay.

“Our staff is doing a great job as they always do to you know, address the high touch surfaces, more frequently throughout the day. We’re still doing the disinfecting that we’ve always done for years, every seat and door handles and stuff of that nature. We’ve added some additional signage in our restroom areas just to remind people to wash their hands for 20 seconds like it’s recommended by the Center for Disease Control,” he adds.

One agency in Fargo says the travel restriction will not have much of an effect on them.

“Restrictions haven’t made a major effect on us, just because you know, we deal more with Americans that are travelling abroad and so far there haven’t been a lot of restrictions for Americans per se to Europe,” says Tod Ganje, a Manager at Travel Incorporated.

They also say it’s too early to tell if the suspension of some cruise lines will affect them as well.

“We are starting to see that some of the cruise lines are starting to cancel some trips. We haven’t had anybody directly affected with that, but that just came out in the last hour or two, so we might see if something happens that way too,” he says.

The local agency added that some of their customers currently in Europe still have their flights scheduled to come back, but things could change at any time.