Belgian tour operators are canceling tours to China due to the spread of the coronavirus, said Pierre Fivet, spokesman for the Belgian association of tour operators (ABTO).
The Belgian foreign ministry previously banned all travel to the Chinese province of Hubei, where the coronavirus epidemic broke out, and recommended that Belgian citizens postpone optional trips to China.
ABTO notified about MFA decision twenty tour operators - members of the association of and more than fifty organizations operating in the tourism sector.
According to Fivet, all trips to China will be canceled. ABTO will offer clients, which be affected by this decision, a number of alternative travel destinations, or a full refund of the cost of a trip to China.
ABTO spokesman could not give the exact number of affected clients, saying that "it will be a few dozen people, not hundreds," given the low tourist season.
In China, the number of deaths from coronavirus rose to 170, and the number of infected people exceeded 7,700.
170 patients managed to completely cope with the disease, they have already been discharged from hospitals.
Cases of infection have also been reported in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, the United States, Germany, Australia, Finland and France.