Asian tourist tally likely to dive 15pc

By ALAN PERROTT AND NZPA

The Tourism Board predicts a 15 per cent drop in the number of Asian visitors because of the Sars infection scare.

Little Village Backpackers in Rotorua has banned guests who have arrived from Hong Kong, China and Canada.

Owner Jenny Yugungim said she placed a sign outside her lodge refusing entry to anyone who had travelled from those countries because her guests were worried about sharing sleeping rooms with potential carriers of the disease.

She said there had been too many deaths worldwide and she wanted to avoid any risk of infection.

The Herald contacted eight backpacker lodges around Auckland yesterday, but none was placing similar restrictions on guests.

St Kentigern College in East Auckland has asked parents of students who have visited "at-risk" countries to keep their children home for a 10-day incubation period.

The precaution also applies to students who have hosted visitors from Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Japan.

Principal Warren Peat said their decision was based on advice from the Ministry of Health.

North Shore's Rangitoto College has asked students returning from risk countries to register with the school and submit to 10 daily health checks from their time of return.

Rosehill College in Papakura has reserved the right to ask children to stay away if they have been anywhere where Sars is present.

The Tourism Board said bookings showed tourist numbers from Asian countries could fall 15 per cent.

Chief executive George Hickton blamed the decline on tourists worried about contracting the virus through air travel or being refused entry to their destination.

Bookings suggest tourist numbers from Japan and Hong Kong could drop by up to 20 per cent and from Taiwan by up to 25 per cent, although those arriving from China, the country with the highest number of Sars deaths, could increase by up to 15 per cent.

New Zealand received 351,027 visitors from Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore in the year to last February.

Meanwhile, the Dunedin man suspected of having Sars has been given the all-clear.

Geoffrey Vine, 63, was last night still in Dunedin Hospital, where he has been in isolation since Friday after falling ill while travelling from London via Bali, Brisbane and Auckland.

His wife, Gillian, said a specialist had ruled out Sars but was unable to diagnose the exact cause of his illness.

"All they've been able to say is that it's atypical pneumonia."

Mr Vine fell victim to the quarantine measures yesterday when he drank from a cup half-full of cleaning fluid left in his bathroom.

Cleaners are not allowed to bring equipment into his room and have been carrying cleaning fluids in drinking containers.

Mr Vine's wife said he had brushed his teeth then used the cup to rinse his mouth out, but spat the fluid out as soon as he felt his throat begin to burn.