As the Coronavirus attempts to make its way across the world, corporate giants with significant footprints in China are responding to the outbreak by closing their doors and introducing strict travel restrictions.
McDonald’s, Starbucks and Disney are closing their doors; with the temporary Closure of Shanghai Disneyland, Disneytown including Walt Disney Grand Theatre and Wishing Star Park.
The travel industry is also impacted by flight screenings and cruise cancellations within China.
Disney also added on Sunday 26 January that it will also temporarily close its Hong Kong Disneyland Park.
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According to Global Times, as of 20:00 Monday 27 January, there are a total 2,840 confirmed cases of novel #coronavirus in China, with 57 discharged from hospitals and 81 deaths.
Year of the Rat
The year of the Rat, or “Year of the Mouse” if you speak Disney, is not going too well so far, with Disney having to close its doors and cancel events for the Lunar New Year, which started on Saturday.
Disney owns 43% of the Shanghai park and 47% of the Hong Kong park and closing the parks means the company is missing out on one of their busiest periods of the year and having to refund cancelled booking costs.
A statement on Disney’s Shanghai park website states:
“As a precautionary measure in line with prevention efforts taking place across China, we are temporarily closing Shanghai Disneyland park out of consideration for the health and safety of our guests and Cast Members.
We are in close contact with health officials and the local government about the situation and will announce a reopening date once they determine it is advisable. In the interim, we will be providing refunds to guests who have booked tickets to the park or rooms at our resort hotels.
Shanghai Disney Resort will assist in the refund for guests who have purchased tickets for admission to Shanghai Disneyland, have booked a resort hotel, or have booked tickets for Beauty and the Beast Mandarin Production through the original ticket purchase channel.”
Other travel updates
Several Cruise lines have suspended voyages through China; including Carnival Cruises, MSC and Royal Caribbean.
So far, we’ve canceled two sailings, Spectrum that was set to sail today and the sailing that was set to sail on 1/31/20.
— Royal Caribbean (@RoyalCaribbean) 27 January 2020
Delta Airlines announced in a press release on Friday 24 January that it will allow travelers with flights booked to, from or through Beijing or Shanghai until Jan. 31 to change their itineraries, with no fee.
Click here for more information.
