Travel Notes: Terrorism, SARS shouldn't bring vacations to halt

Linda Strait is president of House of Travel Inc., a full-service travel agency in Springfield.

Sometimes we can know too much. The access that we have to information can keep us in a state of anxiety and promote fear.

To keep things in perspective, I would like to share with you information excerpted from the February 2003 edition of Conde Nast Traveler that was recently e-mailed from one of our industry cruise representatives:

"There is a 1 in 18,000 chance that you will die this year in a car accident. Afraid of flying? You'd have to travel four times every day for 2000 years to end up in a fatal plane crash. Worldwide, over a million people die each year in road accidents about the same as if a fully loaded 747 crashed every four hours. Out of every 1,000 transportation deaths, 720 are by car and 2 are by airplane."

According to the magazine, you can die this year from a number of causes here are the odds:

Heart disease 1 in 300;

Cancer 1 in 500;

Gunshot 1 in 9,000;

Car accident 1 in 18,000;

Hit by a car walking 1 in 45,000;

Drowning 1 in 200,000;

Lightning 1 in 4 million;

Airline accident 1 in 8 million;

Terrorist attack 1 in 9 million.

In a recent article by Rick Steves: "30,000 commercial planes took off and landed safely last year in the U.S. without a single fatality. The World Tourism Organization reported a 3 percent increase in tourism 2002 over 2001. Over 700 million people crossed a border on vacation. International arrivals in Europe were up 2 percent, or 411 million people."

We are all aware of the SARS virus Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. The media reports the facts and symptoms daily.

The travel industry is responding, so that areas not affected will continue to be desirable vacation destinations. At least four major cruise lines are screening passengers who have come from, or been through Toronto, China, Hong Kong, Singapore or Vietnam.

Check with your travel agent for up to the minute details.

To get updates visit:

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/

http://travel.state.gov/sars announce.html

http://www.who.int/scr/sars/en/

www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/04/27/sars.at.sea

Some Americans will choose to stay home this year, but millions will choose to travel.

And millions will enjoy wonderful, relaxing, fun vacations at bargain prices.