Business travel, tourist trade at a virtual standstill

Associated Press

SEATTLE — Until this week, it was a common sight in the nation’s airports: the business traveler with the wrinkled suit, the laptop and the rolling suitcase rushing off to a conference, trade show or convention, racking up frequent-flier miles.

The hordes of business travelers, whose numbers were already dwindling amid an economic slowdown, may become a rarity, at least in the near future. The stiff new security requirements imposed after Tuesday’s hijackings and terrorist attacks — and a renewed fear of flying — are grounding travelers and forcing companies to cancel conferences that normally draw thousands, and cost millions.

The National Business Aviation Association of Washington, D.C., expected 30,000 people involved in the corporate jet industry to attend its annual meeting in New Orleans next week. The multimillion-dollar event, which took years to plan, has been called off.

Instead of glad-handing and dealmaking, many would-be attendees are preoccupied with tracking down grounded company jets and assisting the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Putting the brakes on that thing was just a mighty effort," spokeswoman Cassandra Bosco said of the convention, which may be rescheduled.

But, she added, "It doesn’t compare at all to what New York and Washington are going through right now."

Bruce Baltin of PFK Consulting, a Los Angeles-based tourism consulting firm, said it was impossible this early to gauge the cost to hotels, restaurants and other tourism-related businesses.

"It’s probably safe to say it will be billions," he said.

In Texas, tourism officials said more than 1,000 small meetings — those with attendance of less than 1,000 each — were canceled, officials said.

"There is hope we will recover some business as we go down the road," said Dave Whitney, president of the Dallas Visitors and Convention Bureau. "The losses? It may be a number we don’t want to know."

Software giant Microsoft Corp. has put off an MSN conference scheduled for later this month until early next year at least.

"We do not feel comfortable asking any of you to travel at this time to attend our event," Yusuf Mehdi, vice president in charge of MSN, said in an e-mail to those planning to attend.