For the past month and a half,
Business Insider senior retail correspondent Kate Taylor
has been traveling around Asia
and is now in Australia.
Kate Taylor: I planned a work trip to travel around Asia
well before the coronavirus.
Narrator: Here's what she's seeing
in airports and on planes
in response to the coronavirus outbreak
and what she's been doing to travel safer.
Taylor: It's been an interesting time
traveling right now,
when it's definitely heightened anxiety.
People are trying really hard
to stay safe, not get sick.
But it's gonna be ending in self-quarantine for me
no matter what happens.
I started out in South Korea,
went to Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand.
I've been surprised by how busy
the airports I've been to have been.
I've been to airports in Seoul,
in Ho Chi Minh City,
in Kuala Lumpur, and in Phuket.
So, all of those airports I would say
are still definitely seeing people come through.
When I was in Seoul, that was before
the outbreak really spread in South Korea,
so that might have changed by now.
But in general I would say
that people are definitely still traveling.
I just flew from Phuket to Brisbane,
and I was surprised by how crowded that flight was.
So I would say that some flights
are definitely a little bit emptier than usual,
but it's not as striking
as I might have thought it would be.
The biggest thing that I've been noticing
is the temperature checks.
I flew through Singapore to get to Brisbane Airport
and there were several different med stations set up
where they were kind of monitoring people's temperatures
as they walked down the hallway.
So, that was something I hadn't seen before.
I know that that is kind of more common practice
at different airports outside the US already,
so not necessarily only linked to coronavirus.
And then people have been randomly pulled aside
to have their temperature checked at different airports.
I haven't had my temperature checked at
that many airports,
but I have had to have my temperature checked
to check into some hotels as I've been traveling.
A lot of flight attendants
that I've been seeing while traveling
have been wearing masks.
I would say basically the
vast majority have worn masks.
So, that is pretty much the standard
at this point, it seems like.
Some are wearing gloves as well.
The biggest and I think probably the most
effective thing I've been doing to protect myself
is sanitizing my seat every time I sit down.
So, having some Lysol wipes, Clorox wipes,
just these sanitizing wipes,
and wipe down the entire area before starting a flight.
I felt pretty self-conscious when I started doing this,
just 'cause I was carrying around a huge thing of wipes
and I felt like it seemed rude,
but that is something that I have been seeing
more and more people doing on flights
and actually has been proven
to kind of keep things clean,
reduce the chance of getting sick.
And whenever you have a chance, just go and
actually wash your hands in the bathroom
instead of just relying on hand sanitizer.
So, stay clean, just be aware.
And if you're next to someone who's coughing,
ask to change seats.
I haven't had to do that yet,
but that's probably a good rule of thumb.
If the CDC says it's safe to travel somewhere,
then I'm kind of
accepting their judgment at this point.
I've felt pretty safe during my traveling.
I can't speak to everyone,
I can't tell people what to do,
but I felt safe traveling around
to all these different countries with coronavirus cases.
We'll see if I'm naive on that one.
I would definitely get tickets
you can refund whenever possible.
I have probably lost a good amount of money
on this trip by getting nonrefundable tickets,
so that is a mistake that I have made a couple times.
Basically, the situation is changing by the hour
instead of by the week or by the day at this point,
so something that seems entirely safe one day,
the situation could change to something
that's not super safe in just a couple of days.