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Beleaguered Industry Counts Cost
Thursday, September 27, 2001
By Stuart Millar / Company

Visitors' fears put thousands of jobs at risk

The Guardian
The full scale of the crisis into which the British tourism industry has been plunged by the US attacks was revealed yesterday as industry chiefs predicted that almost £1bn of business will be lost over the next three months.

The British Tourism Authority (BTA) said the industry faces an "unprecedented crisis" as fear of flying forces Americans and visitors from other key long-haul markets to stay at home.

The authority yesterday released its assessment of the impact of the September 11 attacks on inbound tourism, based on market intelligence from BTA offices worldwide.

The figures make grim reading for an industry already beleaguered by the effects of the foot and mouth epidemic. Even before the atrocities in New York and Washington, the disease had forced the authority to revise its original forecast of spending by overseas visitors this year down from more than £13bn to about £11.7bn.
(More: The Guardian News Source)
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001

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