Meeting Planners to Terrorists: Yawn

After British authorities announced on August 10 that they had dismantled a plan to blow up U.S.-bound airliners in flight, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration issued new travel restrictions banning nearly all liquids and gels at security checkpoints and aboard flights. Despite the requirements — which mean that travelers cannot bring water aboard or keep toiletries in their carry-on luggage — meeting planners and other hospitality experts said group travel has not been affected.

"Historically, whenever we've had an announcement of some terrorist plot uncovered or the alert level was raised, it's led to some cancellations or attrition, but in this case we had no reports from any of the hotels we represent," said Steve Rudner of Rudner Law Offices, a hospitality practice in Dallas.

Rudner was in New York City on August 10 and cleared his calendar the moment he learned of the announcement, expecting to have to field questions from hotels about possible cancellations. "It did happen every other time something like that was reported," he said. "Unfortunately, I think we're getting used to living in a scary world."

Brenda Leake, an independent meeting planner based in Lansing, Mich., reported that at the time of the announcement, she was organizing an October medical conference in Prague of nearly 700 physicians from around the world. Despite the new restrictions, 250 U.S. doctors had confirmed their participation so far, she said.

"I think people are saying, 'I'm not going to let this stop my life,'" said Leake. "I've even been going to the airport and asking airport officials whether travel has slowed down, and they say it hasn't."

MaryAnne Bobrow, who runs an association management firm in Citrus Heights, Calif., said that on August 10 she was leading a 100-person meeting in Chicago of the American Anaplastology Association. "We had no cancellations and even talked about holding future meetings abroad," she noted.

Speculating on why this was so, Bobrow added, "After the initial shock and surprise of September 11, I think many people adopted a new attitude. At first, people were very afraid to fly, but that has changed."

Just 10 days after the announcement, Theresa Tronolone, global events director for software company Actix Inc., traveled to London from her Reston, Va. office for a series of meetings at the company's headquarters. She said the new restrictions did not appear to be discouraging travel and, in fact, had little effect other than creating mild discomfort while in flight.

"The hardest part was not being able to carry on water, ChapStick and hand cream," she said. "By the end of the [flight] I felt like a dried piece of leather."

Tronolone did note that for female travelers, "You can't run from the airport to a meeting anymore. You've got to open your big bag and find your makeup." And because flights from the U.K. have more stringent policies regarding carry-on baggage, she was not allowed to bring even lipstick aboard her return flight. "Coming off the plane, I couldn't at least put on lipstick and look a little better," she sighed.