As Ariella mentions in her blog, Ebola, a deadly and infectious disease, spreads all over the world and has an impact on business. True, Ebola affects macro environment of travel industry.
Politically, some countries plan to ban flights from Africa to keep virus of Ebola out of countries. Governments spend more money on precaution, forcing governments to find other ways to increase revenue.
Socially, Ebola evokes fear and mistrust in the world, causing social unrest. One direct manifestation is that some airlines to West Africa have been cancelled and fewer people travel to Africa.
Furthermore, Ebola blocks global trade and deeply affects companies which have factors in West Africa because now they have consider about their employees’ health issue.
However, I think Ebola only interrupts the business for short period of time. As doctors innovates more effective treatment, fear would decrease. Also, people who are afraid of traveling to Africa can go to other countries for trip. Thus this would not cause airlines to lose large amount of customers. And so-called travel ban in many economists’ eyes is ineffective and ridiculous and is opposed by economists. Thus, Ebola does not risk business so profoundly, at least for now.
Ariella London’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/ariellalndon/