September 11, 2001 attack on America: a record of the immediate impacts and reactions in the USA travel and tourism industry

Abstract On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, 19 suicide hijackers took control of four United States commercial airplanes and crashed them, respectively, into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and in a field in Somerset County, west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. An estimated 5000–6000 people were killed. The cost of the tragedy, in terms of rebuilding, is estimated at about $105 billion (CNN Television News Report, October 5, 2001). The tourism industry in America was severely affected, with immediate declines in airline passenger loads of 50% and more, and similar declines in hotel occupancy. This article describes the impacts of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the travel and tourism industry in the USA. It is compiled from the wealth of secondary data published in the print media, news reports on major television networks in the USA (e.g., ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN), and informal discussions with 50 Executive MBA students and 21 faculty members at a university in the southeastern part of the USA. It is divided into six parts: (1) background: sequence of events; (2) impacts on the travel and tourism industry; (3) managerial implications; (4) future research; (5) limitation; and (6) summary and conclusion.