By Jamie Freed
The attacks on Paris are not expected to have a long-term affect on the city's appeal to tourists.Credit: Bloomberg
A few Australian travellers have chosen to amend their near-term travel plans to avoid Paris after the deadly terrorist attacks on Friday, but travel industry experts say there isn't likely to be a major fall in demand for travel to the French capital in the medium to long term.
Major airlines including Qantas, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and British Airways have waived change fees for travellers wanting to alter reservations in the near term.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce on Monday said he had been advised that, so far, only about six people had changed their itineraries because of the attacks.
"We've had some calls to our call centre and a few, a very small amount of passengers taking up the offer at the moment," he said. "Anybody that needs to get back home, we are facilitating that, and organising any changes to travel that people need."
In partnership with Emirates, Qantas has flown the mother of an injured 19-year-old Hobart woman, Emma Parkinson, to Paris to be by her daughter's side.
Ms Parkinson was shot at the Bataclan concert hall.
Haydn Long, a spokesman for Australia's largest travel agent, Flight Centre, said the company's 24/7 customer assistance line had received about 70 calls regarding Paris at the weekend.
"Most were from customers travelling within the next week," he said. "These people were looking to amend their plans.
"For example, to generally travel as planned but to bypass Paris in the short term. They may be travelling to London, Paris and Rome, so they will bypass Paris or reduce the length of their stay in the city if they are concerned."
He said that was a typical reaction from travellers as most wanted to continue with their plans as best as possible rather than not travel at all.
"We also took a few calls from people who were in Paris and worked with them to alter their plans," Mr Long said.
A spokeswoman for online travel agent Expedia said the company was working as quickly as possible with travel partners to assist travellers.
It has asked travellers to check their insurance policies to see if changes and cancellations due to unforeseen events are covered.
Companies with employees travelling in Paris have also been forced to react to news of the attacks.
Association of Corporate Travel Executives executive director Greeley Koch said some companies would automatically cancel trips to the city in crisis and evacuate travellers quickly.
"Others will evaluate the impact of the crisis and act accordingly after ascertaining the safety of their travellers," he said. "Some companies are requiring senior-level management approval to travel into a current crisis area, while others are leaving the issue to traveller discretion."
Mr Joyce said he expected demand for travel to Paris would rebound quickly.
"These things have happened in the past at other locations around the world," he said of the attacks.
"What we've seen is that Australian travellers are very much not incentivised to change their travel plans in the medium to long term because of these things, because I think it does indicate that terrorism wins in the end.
"There is no doubt that people believe Paris is a phenomenal destination and, in the medium to long term, people will continue their travel arrangements to Paris."