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By Steve Brearton
Illustration: Seth
With flu season upon us once again it's worth remembering that illnesses can have a real impact on economies, especially tourism:
 US$7.28 billion
Tourism in Britain is devastated during a 2001 livestock outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Former US president Bill Clinton and tennis player Tim Henman are recruited by the tourist authority to encourage visitors, but the industry still loses more than US$7 billion.
$324 million
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization issues a Toronto travel advisory due to the SARS virus. The advisory lasts more than three months and contributes to a $300 million loss in tourist spending. "I don't know who this group is," says then Toronto mayor Mel Lastman of the WHO's caution.
US$70 million
Peru's tourist traffic drops by as much as 70% and its economy loses US$70 million during a cholera outbreak in 1991. The Peruvian tourism minister blames "exaggerated news reports." At the time, more than 500 Peruvians had died of the illness.
 US$60 million
In 1976, 29 American Legion convention-goers in Philadelphia die mysteriously. Within the year, the Philly hotel where Legionnaires' disease originated was shuttered and local businesses lost an estimated US$60 million.
US$34 million
Bubonic plague claims 59 lives in India in 1994, resulting in lost foreign bookings of more than US$4 million and tourist-industry losses of at least US$30 million.
$ millions
In the Four Corners region of the US Southwest encompassing New Mexico, Utah, Arizona and Colorado, an illness spread by rodents called hantavirus kills 11 people in 1993. While losses are never tallied, the area's US$2.7-billion tourism industry takes a hit. | 
