FOR RELEASE: Sept. 25, 2001
Contact: Linda MyersOffice: 607-255-9735E-Mail: [email protected]
ITHACA, N.Y. -- While the threat of terrorism will radically alter travel and tourism, the industry is likely to bounce back sooner, and smarter, than some have predicted -- with the added benefit of people just being nicer to each other for a long time to come.
So said a panel of hospitality industry experts convened at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration's Statler Auditorium Friday, Sept. 14, to discuss the impact on the industry of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Hotel School alumnus Marc Bruno '93, director of business development for the Aramark Corp., asked: "Will it devastate the industry? No. Will it bounce back? Yes, but it will take a while." Returning to business as usual has always been an industry practice, said Bruno, whose company managed food and beverages for the Olympic games during a terrifying bomb blast that killed one person and injured more than 100 in Atlanta in 1996. "When the bomb went off, they went on with the games," he reminded the group.
Both Bruno and Cornell alumnus John Sharpe '65, former chief operating officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, noted that while the industry rebuilds, people are continuing to reach out to each other. Bruno said: "We're seeing a flood of donations, volunteers. People are hearing from people they haven't spoken with in a long time, friends who are calling just to make sure they're OK." And Sharpe added: "People are realizing they have something in common and are treating each other differently, and countries are working together more productively."
Who are the immediate losers? Malcolm Noden, senior lecturer in management, marketing and tourism at the Hotel School and a former executive with British Overseas Airline Corp., noted that Delta and Midway airlines, already in financial difficulties because of lower demand before the attacks, have now been forced to declare bankruptcy, and some hotel chains are likely to follow suit. "We're coming into winter planning now, a critical time for travel and tourism," Noden said. However, "while we don't know yet what the effect [of the terrorist attacks on the industry] will be
-- people have extremely short memories and, long range, the market is resilient." Sharpe and moderator Tom Cullen, associate dean for industry and international affairs at the Hotel School, both spoke of the devastation to New York City hotels. With the imminent losses of two Marriotts and one Hilton, said Cullen, "an estimated eight percent of the hotels in the full-service category in New York are largely destroyed." The loss of rooms may help the rest of the hotels in the city, said Sharpe, but it will be disastrous to the smaller hotels, which make most of their earnings catering for the now-damaged or destroyed larger ones, he noted.
The panelists worried collectively about the effect on potential travelers of an avalanche of scare stories in the media following the attacks. However, Sharpe was confident that new security measures for travel and tourism would soon be enacted "that together will make a difference. The industry will come out of this better and stronger, with vast improvements in safety and security for customers," he said. Once that happens, he hopes the media will work with the industry to get the word out.
Undergraduate and graduate students in the Hotel School posed questions to the panelists in two separate sessions. Others taking part in the discussions were Hotel School Dean David Butler and Hotel School faculty members Chekitan Dev, Cathy Enz, Tony Simons and Alex Susskind.
Enz is executive director of the Cornell Hotel School's Center for Hospitality Research, which publishes periodic reports on comparative room occupancy and price rates in cities throughout the United States and other relevant lodging industry statistics, using data from Smith Travel in an exclusive arrangement. CHR also maintains a web site that offers a statistical portrait of the industry: http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/chr/ .
-30-
RSS