Bangaloreans undeterred by H1N1, continue to travel abroad

The H1N1 virus, now at level five one level away from being a global epidemic, has not deterred Bangaloreans from travelling abroad.u00a0

Travel agents say bookings have not been affected, and cancellations too are few.

"Currently, all our departures from India are on schedule without any cancellations. We even are receiving new bookings and inquiries," an official spokesperson from Kuoni India, one of the world's leading tour operators, said.u00a0

"We have been monitoring the current H1N1 situation very closely by tracking WHO's updates and keeping in touch with local authorities," the spokesperson said.u00a0

Satish Hegde, managing director of Master World Travels and Forex Private Limited, said, "Bookings have come down marginally due to recession and not because of the H1NI epidemic. Even today we have done bookings for the US without cancellations. Everything is on schedule."

But the pigs don't fly...u00a0u00a0

Sales of pork and its dishes have drastically come down in the city. In fact, many restaurants and hotels have stopped servicing pork.

"For the past one week, customers have stopped asking for pork dishes. We haven't taken it out of the menu, but we are not going to serve it for some time," said M D Elongoven, manager of Pecos, which is famous for its Chilli Pork

"Even our supplier has stopped supplying the meat," he added.

V A Govardhan, owner of a major meat stall, said, "We have seen quite a decrease in business. We used to sell around 120 kg of meat a day, and 140 kg on weekends, but sales have dropped to 80 kg a day."

He added, "Our regular customers still buy pork, though hotels and food joints have stopped buying it."