Impact of 9 /11 on New York City Tourism

1) INTRODUCTION:

The aim of this report is to evaluate the major financial implications of a catastrophe with regards to a particular hospitality sector. This report is divided into four main parts namely, the background information of the catastrophe followed by the definition of the chosen affected hospitality sector along with its importance. This is followed by statistics in the form of year-by-year figures regarding the implications of the catastrophe along with the recovery strategies followed by the chosen sector as well as associated sectors and a final evaluation of the implications is made by the authors of this report.

2) BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT THE CATASTROPHE:

The September 11th 2001 attacks which are commonly known, as the 9/11 attacks were a series of suicide terrorist attacks on the United States of America primarily targeting civilians. That morning, 19 men associated with the Al-Qaeda terrorist group hijacked four commercial airlines and each team consisted a well-trained pilot. Two of these planes were directed towards the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the pilot of the third plane crashed the plane into the Pentagon in Virginia and the fourth team crashed the plane into a field near the town of Shanksville in Pennsylvania. Due to these attacks 2973 people died whereas 24 still remain missing until today.

The details regarding the four airplanes that crashed are listed below:

1. American Airlines Flight 11: Crashed into the North side of the North Tower at 8:46:30 am local time.

2. United Airlines Flight 75: Crashed into the South Tower at 9:02:59 am local time.

3. American Airlines Flight 57: Crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 am local time.

4. United Airlines Flight 93: Crashed into a field outside the town Shanksville which is located 150 miles away from Washington DC at 10:03:11 am local time.

No one onboard any of these hijacked airplanes survived the crash.

Along with the 110-storyed Twin Towers, five other neighboring buildings of the World Trade Center, the Marriott Hotel and four New York Subway Stations were severely damaged. 25 buildings in the Manhattan Island and all 7 buildings of the World Trade Center had to be razed (http://www.wikipedia.org).

Fatalities

New York City World Trade Center 2,602 died and another 24remain listed as missing

American 11 88

United 175 59

Pentagon Building 125

American 77 59

Shanksville United 93 40

Total 2,973 died and another 24remain listed as missing

(Courtesy: www.wikipedia.org)

Economists estimated the attack cost the local economy more than $80 billion from property damage to lost tax revenue and some 97,500 jobs. Only about 40,000 of those jobs were expected to be recovered by the end of 2003, according to the New York City Partnership, a business advocacy group. New York's unemployment rate was down to 7.7 % as of September 2002 (http://www.usmayors.org).

3) DEFINITION OF TOURISM INDUSTRY WITH REGARDS TO NEW YORK CITY:

Tourism can be defined as the act of travelling to and staying in places outside the usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited (http://en.wikipedia.org/). Tourism industry comprises a number of tangible and intangible components. The tangible elements include the typical hospitality services, which are accommodation, foods and beverages, tours, souvenirs; and related services such as banking, insurance and safety security. In addition, transport systems which by air, rail, road, water and even now, space are also developed as a tourism elements whereas the intangible elements include rest and relaxation, culture, escape, adventure, new and different experiences.

Lickorish and Jenkins (1997) claimed that tourism is an activity, which cuts across conventional sectors in the economy, which requires the inputs of economic, cultural, social and environmental nature. Therefore, tourism is strongly correlated with the state of the economy and the level of national income.

Tourism is an integral part of New York City (NYC). NYC attracts 23% of the overall visitors in the United States which is the largest for any city. This industry had its peak in 2000, began to slow down in early 2001 and plunged down after the 9/11 (http://webdocs.nyccouncil-info/attachments/61396.htm). However, research states, tourism has successfully helped lead NYC's economy back from dreary days of September 11, 2001.

According to The Council Report of Finance Division and Infrastructure Division travel and tourist activities were a $25 billion industry prior to 9/11; one of the most vibrant sectors catering to tourism is the hotel industry. By December 2003 hotel occupancy was at 83% which has increased more than any other year in at least 20 years and average daily room rates were $235, with the average for the year reaching 76 percent and, $193 respectively (http://webdocs.nyccouncil-info/attachments/61396.htm)

The table below shows the visitors, both international and domestic, were 35.3 million in 2002, a slight increase on 2001. Of these, 5.1 million were international visitors. Total spending by both international and domestic visitors that year was $14.1 billion. However, the total economic impact of tourism on NYC was $21 billion. In 2003, the number of visitors increased by 7.1% and continued increasing further to 39.4 million in 2004 and the direct spending by tourist and business traveler was $18.5 billion in 2003.

International & Domestic Travel & Direct Visitor Spending ; NYC 1998-2004

Year International(Million) Domestic(Million) Total(Million) Direct Visitor Spending ($ Billion)

1998 6.0 27.1 33.1 14.7

1999 6.6 29.8 36.4 15.6