Filipino and Austrian travel agents put the blame on the swine flu virus for the recorded slowdown of their holiday bookings.

“I know Filipinos here who are delaying their travels mainly because of the Swine Flu virus,” Tina Macaraeg, a travel agent said.

“Generally, there are a lot of cancellations due to swine flu. I sensed that people are waiting and watching. This is also the thing I observed among our Pinoy clients. Though there are also some who take the risk of traveling to the Philippines since the epidemic is not that so serious in the country,” she said.

Another Filipino travel agent who asked not to be named told ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau that their Filipino holiday bookings have dropped substantially compared to the same period last year.

“It’s a little bit quiet this year,” the travel agent said.

Lolita Cruz, a Filipino migrant in Vienna is having second thoughts about taking a vacation in the Philippines.

“Medyo nangangamba akong lumabas ng bansa this time because of the increasing number of Swine Flu victims. My sister in Manila just texted me na dumami na rin ang cases sa Pilipinas,” Cruz said.

Austrian travel tours worker Sigfried Weiss said that there is an enormous decrease of travelers going to Latin America and Asia for fear of the swine flu infection.

Weiss commented that swine flu was a problem in many Asian, Arab and Latin American countries and many visitors to the region had already canceled trips to these countries because of concerns over the virus.

Meanwhile, Austrian authorities have recently appealed to people to remain calm as other European countries have reported thousands of cases of swine flu. The government has been conducting information campaigns and seminars on the effect A(H1N1) virus and how to combat it.

The Health Ministry in Austria repeated previously-disseminated information that the country had stockpiled around four million pills of the flu drug "Tamiflu." That amount would be enough to treat almost half of the country’s population.

It should be noted that the total number of swine flu cases in Austria has risen to 51 after two new cases were confirmed.