The Global Economy, and the Human Life

MEASURES BY CANADIAN TOURISM AGENCIES TO CURB AVAIN FLU 1
Measures by the Canadian Tourism Agencies to Curb Avian Flu
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MEASURES BY CANADIAN TOURISM AGENCIES TO CURB AVAIN FLU 2
Position Statement
There has been an unindustrialized concern about the possibility of an avian flu pandemic
(AFP) and its impacts on the global financial systems, the global economy, and the human life.
Such pandemics are common occurrences and they cannot be ignored due to their great impacts.
Background of Content
On 20th May 2010, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported that the highly
pathogenic avian influenza virus had invented the Central Fraser Valley (Alhaji and Odetokun,
2011, p. 159). This had caused much impacts to the residents including deaths and the disease
was spreading rapidly exposing the lives of people into risk.
Statement of Need
Following a previous outbreak in Toronto in the year 2000 which claimed the lives of
hundreds of people, the government had to take immediate necessary measures in order to avoid
the severe impacts. This necessitated the need for all the sectors of the economy including the
tourism sector to join hands and come up with the proper means to combat the situation. The
tourism industry was thus made aware and was keen to take responsibility of informing the
foreign tourists and even the locals who use the tourism services in order to curb the rapid spread
of the virus and achieve a successful outcome. This is because the immediate effects of the
impacts would be felt both locally and internationally by the animal and human health. This
paper features the tourism industry’s policy to address the outbreak of the avian flu to prevent its
adverse effects on the tourist sector among other sectors of the economy in Canada.
Process Plan
The avian flu as defined by Cheng 2011, is a disease which is caused by a virus with
numerous types whereby some are more hazardous than others. Highly pathogenic avian flu
causes serious diseases in domestic poultry with high mortality rate hence a threat to both human
and poultry life. While the scientific study suggests that the entry and spread of the disease find
its favorable environment in the domestic poultry, it has proved to be a major concern in the
tourism sector since the disease affects human life as well. The disease presents a major concern
since when given opportunity, it changes into a form which makes it become highly
transmittable for humans and spreads out rapidly from one person to the other (Alhaji and
Odetokun, 2011, p.160). Additionally, if not well addressed in good time the spread could mark

MEASURES BY CANADIAN TOURISM AGENCIES TO CURB AVAIN FLU 3
the beginning of a world outbreak and controlling it may become almost impossible. This
necessitated the minister for health in collaboration with tourism industry in Canada to come up
with a policy to address the situation as it would cause major negative effects on the tourism
sector (Cheng, et al.2011, p.186). According to the WHO, this is necessitated by the fact that the
disease has great uncertainties about the virulence, timing, and the general scope of a future
pandemic of the humans, assessing the number of people who might fall victims of the disease
and the social impact the event might cause.
In contradiction of this framework of a considerable uncertainty about the nature of the
pandemic, this paper provides an introductory valuation of the risks and the potential impact it
might have on the tourism sector. The Canadian minister for tourism focuses on marketing the
tourism destination in order to generate export revenues to the economy. Tourism is one of the
sectors that are considered to generate much of the government revenues due to the provision of
new dollars to the Canadian economy since an item sold to an international tourist is considered
as an export. The avian outbreak may pose the risk of losing many tourists in fear of contracting
such a disease (Cheng, et al.2011, p.186). The foreign investors may also flee the country due to
such an outbreak hence pose great losses of the foreign income in the economy of Canada. This
necessitates the minister for trade and tourism to come up with measures to curb such a disease
and avoid such scenarios.
The outbreak leads to many impacts and the Canadian government adopted some
measures to curb the flu and why it emerged as an issue posing global risks in the tourism sector.
In 2010, Canada identified avian flu and its spread as an issue of concern in the tourism and
indirectly decided to share this as a case of good practice with other NGOs globally via the
World Tourism Organization. This issue was further reaffirmed in 2014 when the Global Risks
2014 report showed that an influenza outbreak was one of the major risks facing the global
business in 2013 and 2014 hence causing an acute concern (Cheng, et al.2011, p.186). This
included the drop in the tourism revenues by 300C$ on the basis of the fear of flying by the other
foreigners. In order to focus on the event strategically, the tourism industry among other sectors
of the economy estimates the potential impact of the outbreak so as to come up with the
necessary measures. The government would thus involve all the sectors of the economy and the
whole public in general by mobilizing them to take responsibility in the efforts to fight the
disease.