MALE, May 3 (HNS) – An online survey carried out in March by the Pacific Asia Travel Association among 5,601 international travelers from 10 countries has shown that 20 – 40 percent of those people misidentified Maldives as having incidents of bird flu.

However no case of bird flu has been reported here.

The participants in the online survey from Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the US also misidentified Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Korea as having has incidents of bird flu, the survey said.

About 43 percent of the respondents said they are considering Asia as a vacation destination this year, up from 34 percent last year.

Overall, only 35 percent said the December 2004 tsunami made them less likely to visit the region, and only 28 percent expressed concern that another tsunami might hit.

But 57 percent said bird flu made them less likely to visit and 39 percent said they would be concerned about terrorism if they planned to visit Asia