Coronavirus- Have any Rick Steves Italy tours been cancelled or changed? Professional input please

When you called the tour office to ask this question, what were you told?

I’m going to disagree with the last poster that says, “Rick Steves will have no choice but to refund.”

Rick Steves travel has always been extremely reasonable about allowing people with emergency situations to reschedule to a later tour. They do, however point out that this a courtesy that they extend and that refunds are not given after a certain time.

I think it is one thing if the CDC issues a do not travel alert vs. just deciding not to go. Right now the CDC travel alert for Italy is to take usual precautions and wash hands.

To add to Carol's post, the U.S. State Dept. has yet to issue any sort of advisory for Italy that concerns the virus. They have issued cautions for travel to Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and some other countries. The only one I'm seeing right now with a Level 4, Do Not Travel advisory is China. "Do Not Travel" State Dept. advisories are what usually trigger tour and flight cancellations and refunds. Of course if a significant amount of folks cancel a tour even without a "Do not travel" being issued, a tour may be cancelled. However if your flights are not cancelled, you may not be able to get a refund - or full refund - depending on your particular type of tickets or travel insurance. In extreme circumstances, some may offer free rebooking to a later date. Example:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/28/business/delta-american-united-coronavirus-wuhan-china/index.html

As this is a fluid situation, check here for staying abreast of advisories for your destination.

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/

I’m just going to link to the tour conditions page in case anyone is interested.

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/tour-conditions

State Dept did issue an alert Feb 23:
https://it.usembassy.gov/health-alert-u-s-embassy-rome-italy-february-23-2020/
Situation if very fluid and not even WHO knows what is next.

Right, Edgar, but they didn't issue an advisory under Travel.State.Gov. I'm not sure why as that is as that's where people are usually instructed to look. Anyway, they aren't advising against travel to Italy at this time aside from "government-designated affected areas" mentioned in the Embassy link.

But I do think it's a bit odd that they haven't issued a caution on the travel site too.

Hi all,

To first directly answer the OP's question, we have neither cancelled any tours nor have we re-routed any itineraries at this time. We have posted our response to the evolving situation here:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/coronavirus-what-you-need-to-know-about-travel-in-italy

Following. We have the 17 day tour scheduled (May 8). Payment is due in 10 days.

My main question is will RST allow us to rebook in 2020 if we are within 30 days of our start dates since this is not a credible family emergency? Will there be a rebooking fee? Our tours leave March 22 and 29, and we will be airing in Italy 2 days before that time.

Webmaster,
Thank you for the helpful and constructive input. Good to hear no changes as of now. We all realize this is potentially a very changeable situation. If there are changes, could we please ask that you share it here?

Although we are not on a tour, we are part of the RS community in terms of buying RS products and patronizing RS-recommended hotels, restaurants, etc. So, we thought it fair to lean a little on the professional input I'm sure the tour area has access to.

Thanks again,