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Iran Trade Point Network

Laleh International Hotel

Sorry,
I Want to Cancel

Those people who refer to September 11th as “the day the world changed” may be right. As the after-shocks of terrorist attacks on America continue, airlines, hotels, conference organizers and travel companies face inescapable hard times.
As airlines struggle to repair schedules and to fill empty aircraft, hotels are contemplating vacant rooms and silent bars.

Tehran Is Not Alone: Iran is blessed with a unique wealth of archeological, environmental and historical gems. Having exerted months-long efforts to promote “2001: Year of Visiting Iran”, also concurrent with the Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, Iranian authorities were expecting a boost in the country’s tourism industry. But that seems to be close to impossible. Tehran, however, is not the only city that experiences cancelled reservations and conferences. In New York, Boston, San Francisco and even Las Vegas, occupancy has fallen by around 40%. Hotels are reportedly half-empty in London, Paris and Tokyo.

Shrinking Business: Paris misses around 2 million American tourists that visit the city each year, helping tourism to support 15% of the city’s jobs. In Britain, the effects are being felt along the familiar tourist routes traveled by foreigners and visitor numbers are expected to fall 25% below normal for the rest of the year. Also in Germany, attendances for the first days of Munich’s Oktoberfest were 30% down on last year. Australia’s tourist industry, approaching its peak season, reports foreign bookings down 25%. Back in America an already troubled Pacific cruise line has suspended operations and one online travel agency has closed down for lack of business.
The World Travel and Tourism Council talked this week of a 30% drop in global travel-industry revenues where the fall will be between 10%-20% over the next 12 months for America and less for Europe and Asia.

Little Big Airlines: Representing major airlines, IATA forecasts that international air travel for the second half of this year could be down by 16%. Airlines are in every sense in the front line and they have announced more than 100,000 job losses in America and Europe as they shrink. By the end of September, airlines in America lost $4.7 billion as a result the terrorist attacks.
Following the American carriers, other airlines are taking similar measures. Air Canada cut capacity by 20%, Alitalia cut 4,000 jobs, Swissair announced 3,000 lay-offs and British Airways plans to prune its European network drastically.

A Taxi Ride from Recession: The world’s hotels are only a taxi ride away from recession in air travel. September is normally a big month for business conventions and October is the peak month for hotels and business cities. But relying on their relative financial strength, hotels have more room for maneuver now. They are already reportedly offering discounts of up to 50% in big American cities. For the next few months, the travel industry, like the rest of the world, will have to hold its breath.

Sorry, I Want to Cancel: Fears of further attacks also threaten business conferences and conventions. The end of business conferences has often been predicted, but it has never felt closer than now. Since the attacks on September 11th, more than 60 international conferences have been cancelled. Once, the conference business seemed threatened by telephony, video-conferencing and the Internet, that were all supposed to make face-to-face meetings unnecessary. However, the opposite happened in the 1990s. Now will terrorism succeed where the communications revolution failed? The next attractive conference may be on Business Strategy After the Day the World Changed.