Epidemic: Reactions of the charter industry to the coronavirus

To ease customers' worries about possible bookings in coronavirus times, the Heiligenhafen-based company is offering a customer guarantee for its Mediterranean locations on Mallorca and in Croatia: For all bookings made between 4 March and 30 April, they offer free cancellation or rebooking options. A money-back guarantee applies up to 45 days after booking.

Generally valid for the day of arrival: If the charter does not take place due to quarantine at home, border closures, flight cancellations or official travel warnings from the authorities to the charter area at the time of the trip, the charter sum can be redeemed at a later date in the 2020 season at one of the company's locations in the Mediterranean; if there is no capacity available, it can also be postponed to 2021. Individual solutions will be found for customers who have booked before the 45-day deadline. This does not apply to the Baltic Sea locations of 1st class yachts, as the situation in Germany is not yet considered to be so dramatic at the present time.

"If the situation worsens, we will certainly find solutions," says Head of Marketing Dirk Kaddach. "In our 48-year company history, we have already mastered several crises, such as the war in Yugoslavia, floods or the Sars bird flu, and will also be able to deal with the current situation!"

Meanwhile, the travel market is showing the first signs of upheaval as a result of cancellations, albeit primarily for Italy and for flight bookings from overseas. According to the Forward Keys Institute, which specialises in travel data, bookings to Italy have plummeted since the rise in the number of cases in Lombardy and the first deaths; significantly more trips are being cancelled than new ones are being added. In this respect, the strict reaction of the Italian authorities, who are trying to contain the outbreak with quarantines across entire towns, is entirely understandable.

In Germany, however, more and more experts are urging people to take the outbreak more calmly. According to virologists, the mortality rate for people infected with coronavirus is around 2 per cent. By comparison, the mortality rate during the outbreak of the Sars virus a few years ago was 10 to 11 per cent.

Chinese researchers are already differentiating more precisely, as they have registered many more deaths (over 80,000, compared to just 349 confirmed cases in Germany). The risk for young people is therefore rather low (0.2 per cent). From the age of 50, the risk of dying from the infection increases significantly - to around 1.3 per cent. People over 80 are most at risk - 14.8 per cent of those infected in the Chinese evaluation died. Whether these figures can be transferred to Europe is questionable, as it can be assumed that a whole series of sufferers are not recorded as the symptoms are mild and they do not go to the doctor.

At present, however, the curve with the number of infected people in Asia is already levelling off, which gives researchers hope. However, the Robert Koch Institute currently rates the risk to the health of the German population as "moderate".