The following excerpts are from a CNN article on the impact that the recent world events - political turbulence in Africa and the Middle East and the tsunami and earthquake in Japan - have wreaked on the global travel industry. The events have been taking major tolls on tourism related businesses, small and large alike. The article details how Delta Airlines is reducing flights to Japan to accommodate the drop in demand:
The airline is reducing its capacity in Japan by 15 to 20% through May by cutting the number of flights to Tokyo's Narita International Airport -- a Delta hub -- and suspending service at the city's Haneda Airport, Bastian said Tuesday at the J.P. Morgan Aviation Transportation and Defense Conference in New York.The Tokyo market generates more than $2 billion a year for Delta, so the disruption may cost the company up to $400 million, Bastian said. The airline is monitoring the demand, however, and is ready to boost service as needed.
Meanwhile the political tensions and uprisings in other parts of the world have seen a significant drop in Carnival Cruise demand:
More than 280 cruises had to be "reset" -- or given new itineraries -- and the company estimates this disruption to its business will result in about $44 million of lost revenue, said Howard Frank, Carnival's vice chairman and chief operating officer, during an earnings conference call on Tuesday."We pulled out of just all North African stops, in Tunisia and Morocco and Egypt, and we've pulled out of -- actually, in some cases, we've had to pull out of Israel because we got a lot of resistance," Frank said.
"People are just concerned about going to that part of the world."