Sun Safaris update on Ebola – 30 October 2014
The health care worker who contracted the virus in Dallas has made a full recovery and has been discharged from her Texas hospital. Senetgal and Nigria are officailly Ebola Free states.
Many safari lodges and suppliers are offering to refund the shortfall between what you paid and your reimbursement from your travel insurance, should the virus spread to the country you are about to travel too. This means that there is no need to not book your safari to Southern and East Africa.
Sun Safaris update on Ebola – 22 October 2014
There have been some changes to the cancellation policy of some of our biggest suppliers who have lodges and camps in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania, and the rest of Southern Africa. You must always take out Comprehensive Travel Insurance as you make your bookings – this is standard practice for all holidays!
In the event that Ebola spreads to the country you are due to travel to and the World Health Organisation (WHO) declares that country a no travel area the following course of action will apply.
This only applies to lodges and camps that have amended their cancellation rules due to Ebola and only when the outbreak is confirmed by the WHO and one of the G5 countries ( USA, UK, Germany, Japan and France).
When cancelling after the the outbreak is confirmed, you are required to first claim from the insurer who issued the comprehensive travel policy. We will ensure that you have the correct documentation to facilitate this. You will need to send us the letter from your insurance company that states the refund which will will pass on to the lodge or camp. They will then calculate if any refund is due and return it to you, less their service fee of about 5%.
Also important to remember is that not all lodges and camps have this deal, just a few. So your main option would be to postpone your safari to a later date.
Sun Safaris update on Ebola – 16 October 2014
Sun Safaris is committed to ensuring that our guests are updated with the latest information regarding the Ebola virus. We know that fears are high about travel to Africa as a whole, but want to assure you that we at Sun Safaris value the trust our guests have in us and your safety is our top priority. If you make a booking with us and in the event that you become fearful of traveling, Sun Safaris assures you that we will do everything to postpone your trip. We would not send anyone into an environment where Ebola is found.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is in the countries of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Travel should be limited to these 4 countries but they lie thousands of miles from Southern and East Africa. You are closer to Paris than the Kruger National Park. We have had border controls in place for months, blocking the arrival of people from these 4 infected countries. Flying into Southern Africa is safe, and going into the wonderful lodges and camps in Botswana, Kruger, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, would still make for an excellent safari. These places are remote with few people visiting them, which further reduces any risk of the virus spreading. London is closer to the West African countries than Nairobi and Arusha in Tanzania, making an East Africa Safari possible.
It is important to understand the Ebola Virus. It not an air borne virus. It can only be spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person. There is now screening in place at international airports in Southern Africa, the major airports in the USA and the UK to ensure flights from these 4 countries are closely monitored and passengers checked. Governments and aid agencies around the world are working to combat the spread and provide much needed support on the ground in the 4 West African countries. The new cases in the USA and in Spain resulted from 2 people coming directly from the infected countries. Unfortunately a caregiver was subsequently infected from direct contact, but is already responding well. Despite the alarm of these few isolated countries, there are very good health systems in place there which will limit the spread of Ebola.
It is important to note just how big Africa is and how far away Southern Africa is from the infected West African countries. These countries are closer to Paris and London than Cape Town and Maun in Botswana. It’s also interesting to think that the entire countries of China, United States of America, India, and most of Europe could all fit together in the African Continent. There are 53 countries in Africa, of which the outbreak is in 4, with isolated cases in 2 other countries.
To put this in perspective, here are the distances of some main cities from the West Africa Ebola area – London and Maun are the same distance from West Africa!
London is 3018 miles Paris 2875 miles Rome 2682 miles New York 4468 miles Toronto 4774 miles
Johannesburg 3510 miles Windhoek 2829 miles Maun 3013 miles Nairobi 3301 miles.
Image courtesy of SafariBookings.com
Kai Krause created this image to show just how huge the continent of Africa really is! This certainly puts the world into perspective!
