While Americans ponder the question of whether it is safe to travel, vacant airplanes and hotels are prompting companies to create or extend bargains in an attempt to bolster business. Among the problems is how to offer price reductions that don't sound as if they are an attempt to profit from Persian Gulf strife.
"The drop-off in travel was started by the poor economy and then accelerated by the war in the Gulf," said Louis Richmond, spokesman for the Seattle Sheraton hotel. "And we have had to come up with sensitive programs to try to generate travel."
With more than 20 countries on the State Department's list of nations to be avoided, the traveler's world is shrinking. As a result of the Gulf conflict, the State Department list includes: Iraq and Kuwait, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Sudan, Yemen, Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Syria, northern Nigeria, Djibouti, Lebanon, Iran and Libya.
In past slowdowns, many airlines aggressively initiated fare wars and advertising campaigns to stimulate business.
Not this year.
After the war began, and airlines suffered an almost immediate drop in bookings, many actually pulled newspaper and television ads.
"We dealt with this in much the same way we deal with an airplane crash," said Continental spokesman Art Kent. "We just pulled our ads. But we didn't pull them because of the drop in traffic, which we think was just a brief hiccup, at least for domestic travel. We pulled the ads because we didn't think it seemed appropriate to advertise leisure travel and vacations at a time of war."
But many companies are reducing prices in an effort to make travel attractive.
"There are lots of extraordinary fares available at this time," said Don Ford, head of the British Tourist Authority in North America. "There are good hotel rates, great air fares."
A sampling:
--Virgin Atlantic is offering a round-trip New York-to-London fare for only $249.
--A discounted fare from LAX to London on British Airways, through a company called Flight Coordinators (800-366-3544), now costs $427. The normal fare for that route on the same airline is $700.
--Flight Coordinators is also offering a fare of $659 to Vienna on Pan Am or TWA. The regular fare is $836.
--The usual Egypt Air round-trip fare between Los Angeles and Cairo costs approximately $1,320. Now it is as low as $980 through R&H Voyage (818-246-9356; reservations must be made with R&H through travel agents). And some tour operators can now get it for even less.
