Tourism mends after 9/11

Five years ago today, much of the public watched in horror as planes smashed into the World Trade Center towers, into the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania.

These devastating events brought tears to the eyes of many and conjured fear and anger in the hearts of others.

Emotions aside, the economy suffered as Wall Street closed and airports, bus and train stations — and many businesses — shut down Sept. 11, 2001. The tourism and travel industry was arguably one of the hardest-hit areas.

Five years later, Newport-Mesa seems to have recovered from the blow with robust numbers in terms of residents traveling out of the area and tourists coming in.

Before the attacks, the industry had been in dire straits, said Gary Sherwin, Newport Beach Conference and Visitors Bureau president and chief executive officer.

“What a lot of people weren’t aware of was that the tourism industry had already begun to decline in 2001, with the economy softened and the dot-com bubble blowing up,” he said. “The terrorist attacks just put that decline on steroids and accelerated it literally overnight.”

In 2000, passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport totaled 7.7 million. In 2001, the number dipped to 7.3 million, which could partly be due to the aftermath of Sept. 11. Every year since, the numbers steadily climbed by an average of about 500,000 passengers. In 2005, 9.6 million passengers made their way through the airport.

“We definitely bounced back pretty well, where other airports are just now getting back to their original numbers,” said Jenny Wedge, the airport spokeswoman. “We’re not really in that situation, as you can see, we have gone above and beyond where we were.”

Part of the quick rebound may be due in part to John Wayne’s quick response to heightened security measures.

“I think one of the things we have learned since Sept. 11 is that not all airports were built for post-Sept. 11 security,” said Nico Melendez, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration. “We’ve changed the way we do business and changed the way we look at security. Some airports have really been on the forefront leading the way for other airports, and John Wayne is a great example of that.”

When the government mandated that the transportation security agency be formed, John Wayne officials immediately began working alongside it to try to make travel and security transitions as easy as possible for travelers.

The airport ramped up security staffing and infrastructure, including the Airport Police and three full-time Canine Explosive Detection Teams. In 2002 and 2003, it was outfitted with in-line bag screening, making it one of the first airports to comply with the requirement from the Department of Homeland Security.

They doubled screening lanes in 2004. This was evident last month when a terrorist plot was foiled in England and airport officials immediately had more security and support staff to try to help passengers ease into the new restrictions.

For the government and others, the attacks were a wake-up call, showing just how important the parts are to the whole.

“The one positive thing out of it is the tourism industry has never been recognized as a legitimate industry by many people in government,” Sherwin said. “Literally closing down the tourism industry for several days and it taking so long to recover made people realize the importance and interconnectivity of the industry.”

Newport Beach saw a decline in business travel, much like most areas, but it was offset somewhat by an increase in leisure travelers. This phenomenon was probably due to the fact that rather than hopping on a flight and braving security lines for destinations a bit farther, people were more apt to get behind the wheel and play on the beaches and shop at the stores of Newport, Sherwin said.

“We had a huge increase in the drive market,” he said. “People from within the region and other parts of the state would come down and visit us probably more so than prior to 9/11, and that is still pretty much in place.”

Tourism and travel has seemingly made a comeback in the area and if trends indicate the future, there’s no sign that people will stop traveling in and out of the area.

“People feel that it is their right to go travel somewhere — they earned it,” Sherwin said.

In memory of the tragedy, there will be a moment of silence in the John Wayne Airport terminal at 8:46 a.m. today, the time the first plane — American Airlines Flight 11 — crashed into the World Trade Center. Words of remembrance will be read over the public announcement system.