Attacks Expected to Hurt Tourism

Mass cancellations by travelers over the terror attacks against the United States may have the global tourism business headed for its worst crisis ever.

Tourism experts, travel agents and cruise ship operators around the world already are describing the attacks as ``catastrophic'' for the $455 billion-a-year business.

They fear the crisis could surpass their worst previous blow, the Gulf War in 1991.

Tourism is ``the world's number one industry, and the services are reliant on people's safety and security, and people's financial safety and security. Both of these have been threatened by this event,'' said Graham Miller, a lecturer in tourism at the University of Westminster in London.

Jitteriness is expected to severely curtail travel plans to and from the United States, stemming the flow of Americans abroad and cutting trips by Europeans, Japanese and others to the United States -- one of the world's premier destinations.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/nati...l-Tourism.html

It's really going to hurt in the short term. We own/operate 70 hotels around the world, mostly in the luxury class. Most of our domestic hotels were forecasted to finish around 70% occupancy for 2001, but with the hotels running an average of 17% for the last week.....

Fleet Week canceled in wake of terrorism
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...9/MN238404.DTL