TOURISM operators in York are being advised to highlight if the coronavirus is impacting on their business so their concerns can be raised with Government.

Visit York has issued advice to its members and partners, highlighting 'best practice industry examples' of large accommodation providers offering free cancellations until February 4 to guests who are affected by the situation.

As reported, there are two confirmed cases of people with coronavirus in England which are being monitored closely.

"Chinese authorities have ordered all their national travel agencies and online travel companies to temporarily suspend business, group travel and ‘ticket and hotel’ products effective immediately," says a spokesman in a message to members.

"If you are starting to receive cancellations related to the coronavirus please do feed this back to us via membership@makeityork.com and we will pass this onto the national level so that VisitBritain and DCMS can continue to feed in tourism concerns to Government.

"The extent of the impact on the industry depends on the length of the suspension of travel."

Martin Bradnam, who has taken over as chairman of the Hospitality Association York (HAY), is the general manager of the DoubleTree Hilton and said: "We are part of an international brand. Hilton are very clued up on regulations and health and safety. We have an international policy that's already been issued with some guidance.

"As a company we try to be very sensitive to the predicament of anyone in China who may be restricted in terms of travelling. It has resulted in a few minor cancellations.

"We had a group that was planning to travel here next week - 20 rooms for two nights - who have cancelled due to the travel ban and limitations in China. We have worked with them to facilitate that and, in line with our international policy. That's been the main impact to us at the moment."

He said the hotel group had developed a number of policies over the years, due to outbreaks such as avian flu, and had emergency stock in place, particularly for cleaning.

"We have the relevant stock ready to go and we have a policy in place if anything should emerge."

York has become a very popular destination for Asian tourists, especially since Taiwanese pop mega-star Jay Chou, pictured, married his bride Hannah Quinlivan in a fairy-tale ceremony at Selby Abbey in 2015, followed by a reception at Castle Howard.

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"And we are almost equal destination from London and Edinburgh," said Martin. "York is a very buoyant Chinese destination so we have seen a big increase, certainly over the last 12 months, from the Chinese market."

At the Visit York Conference 2020, the latest tourism figures were unveiled which showed a stable number of international visits to the city in 2018 at 289,000, compared with a UK-wide decline in inbound visits of five per cent from 2017.

The top five international markets for York were US (16 per cent of all international visits, unchanged from 2015); China (12 per cent, up from nine per cent); Australia (11 per cent up from nine per cent); Germany (eight per cent, up from five per cent) and Canada re-entered the top five at eight per cent of all visits, a position held by Spain in 2017.

It is currently off-peak season for trips from China to the UK, with about 15 per cent of holidays taking place from January to March, according to Visit York.

"We would hope for a subsequent surge in bookings when the suspension is over. Although the impact of SARS was significant in 2002-3 the recovery was robust within months."

Martin said the coronavirus had "the potential, if it continues in the year, to start to impact on all the hotels in York".

"The severity of that is unclear."

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The Grand, York

He added: "We obviously don't want people to panic about it. There's talk about a proven virus in Newcastle. We are hoping to keep that in context but not panic about it."

Philip Bolson, of The Grand, York's only five-star hotel - a popular hotel among Chinese visitors, said: "We are closely monitoring the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization’s statements regarding coronavirus (2019-nCoV) cases and following the guidelines from these agencies and the local health departments. The wellbeing of our guests and team is of paramount importance. The Chinese market continues to be very important to us and we are working with our different Agencies regarding any queries they may have."