Recession fears put off travellers

Fear of recession will soon eclipse fear of terrorism as the main reason for the decline in travel, American hoteliers were told on Saturday.

Consultant Peter Yesowich said that, "barring another terrorist incident", he believed that the economy would become the chief reason for continuing caution.

A series of surveys carried out by Yesowich, Pepperdine and Brown have shown that Americans are now more willing to travel than they were straight after 11 September, but more than one in five still say it affects their travel plans.

Yesowich told a seminar on travel trends that 37% of 800 regular leisure travellers surveyed 24 hours after the attack said they would alter their travel plans as a result.

A month later, when the survey was repeated, that figure had fallen to 27% and when it was done a third time, on 5 November, it was down to 22%.

Yesowich said that "this indicated things are improving, yes, but they still have not changed dramatically, particularly in the last month."

Business travellers showed a similar pattern to leisure travellers, but were less likely to change plans. After the attack 33% said they would alter their arrangements, but this fell to 19%.