Stardate 20011024.1412 (On Screen): One of the biggest victims of the September attacks in the US has been the tourist industry world wide. This article describes how American and Japanese tourist visits to Paris have dropped off considerably. The damage which has been done to the airlines is well known. Disney is being hurt badly; visits to Disney World in Florida are badly off.
I'm going to be going on vacation next week. It's my first vacation since last February and I figure I'm due. I'll be driving to Las Vegas and spending a week there. I'm not avoiding the airlines; I always drive. It's a straight shot up I-15 and it only takes about six hours, and this way I have my car. Also, there are places along the way that I like stopping. I heard that occupancy in Vegas was also badly down, but I also hear that it's rebounded. I'll let you know when I get back what it was like there. I'm not doing this out of some misplaced sense of patriotism, I'm doing it because I need a vacation. I can certainly understand why other people are cancelling travel plans; and it doesn't help that the airlines are still having trouble with their security. Still, I hope that fear doesn't paralyze us unnecessarily. In the mean time, this is going to ripple out and a lot of people around the world are going to discover that they, too, were victims of the NYC attack when the flow of American tourist dollars dries up. (discuss)
