Leading By Example

Africa specialist Big Five Tours & Expeditions insists brushing up on geography could help allay growing international alarm over Ebola and the company’s president is citing his own ongoing travels in Africa to demonstrate that most of the continent isn’t now at risk for the deadly disease, reports Travel Courier’s Ian Stalker.

The number of fatalities linked to Ebola is now hovering around 5,000 and a handful of cases that have surfaced outside of western Africa have raised fears among some that Ebola may work its way into other regions, with Africa – where medical care often lags behind that available in Western nations – seen by many as particularly vulnerable.

That in turn is raising concerns that Africa’s tourist trade could be severely damaged as nervous vacationers shun it.

But Big Five president Ashish Sanghrajka insists Ebola should be as a non-issue for those now wanting to visit traditional African tourist destinations, saying eastern and southern Africa have seen “zero” Ebola cases.

“We do not send people to countries where Ebola has surfaced,” the Kenya-born Sanghrajka said in this week’s digital edition of Travel Courier. “The tourism infrastructure does not exist in those countries and has not for some time.

“Your guests are closer to the Ebola outbreak visiting London, compared to southern or eastern Africa, where you are 3,000 miles away.”

Big Five says shunning all Africa would be akin to not vacationing in Quebec after Ebola surfaced among healthcare workers in Dallas who were treating a Liberian with the disease.

For the full story, check out this week’s digital edition of Travel Courier by clicking here.