The international tourism industry has lost 6.6 million jobs since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and recovery will take longer than predicted, according to a study released Jan. 29 by the United Nations' International Labor Organization.

The United States was hit worst by the dramatic drop in travel and tourism, the study said, but the economic shockwaves were disastrous on the entire tourism industry, especially on developing countries that rely largely on foreign tourism.

One in every 12 workers in the tourism industry has lost a job since September 2001, according to the study, The Impact of the 2001-2002 Crisis on the Hotel and Tourism Industry. Such loses likely will be long-lasting because most employers in tourism-related businesses compensate for layoffs with increased productivity of remaining staff, ILO said.

"The longer the crisis lasts or the slower the industry recovers, the more jobs are lost irretrievably," according to the ILO study.

Industry analysts anticipated a slow tourism recovery starting in 2002, but the stagnant worldwide economy, terrorist attacks in tourist destinations such as Bali and Kenya, and travelers' continued safety concerns, are likely to prevent the tourism market from getting back to 2000 levels until 2005, the study said.

In the United States, international tourist arrivals have dropped about 30 percent from pre-Sept. 11, 2001, levels. U.S. travel expenditures, which had previously been increasing at about 4 percent a year, dropped almost 6 percent in 2001, down to $537 billion, from $570 billion in 2000. These expenditures did not recover in 2002, but dropped even further to $535 billion, according to the study.

The study projects U.S. travel spending in 2003 will increase by about 5 percent to $555.6 billion, but that figure will still put it below 2000's $570 billion, according to the ILO study.

Tourism employment in the United States dropped almost 6 percent in 2001, for a loss of about 1.1 million jobs, and an estimated 760,000 more travel-related jobs were lost in the United States in 2002, the study said.

The Travel Industry Association of America estimates that 19 million Americans are employed in travel-related jobs, with an annual payroll of $174 billion. That is down from 2001, when the U.S. travel industry lost 1.1 million jobs, the study said.

In addition, countries near the United States saw similar drops, as tourists from other parts of the world stayed away from North America, the study said. Canada had 19 percent fewer international tourists, Cuba had 26 percent less, the Dominican Republic had 25 percent less, Mexico had 24 percent less, and Jamaica had 20 percent less, the study said.

Americans also stayed home or made shorter trips, which had a massive impact on the tourism of other areas of the globe, the study said. Europe, which normally sees a high proportion of its tourists come from the United States, experienced steep declines in 2001 and 2002, ranging from a 9 percent drop in Austria to a 17 percent drop in Germany. Elsewhere, the Philippines saw a drop of 25 percent and Australia saw a drop of 21 percent, according to the study.

The Middle East, especially Egypt, also saw dramatic drops in international tourism, the ILO study found.

Tourists all over the globe mostly either chose not to travel for their vacations or made short trips, the study said, as evidenced by most countries seeing a sharp drop in visitors from far away, but a modest increase in visitors from neighboring countries. Developing countries experienced proportionately bigger hits because of their economies' dependence on foreign tourists, particularly long-haul tourists, the study said.

A sharp drop in business travel also hurt the industry, the study said. Although corporate travelers comprise only one-fifth of the total traveling population, the study said, they contribute almost half of the industry's total revenue because of their high frequency of travel.

The report noted that travel and tourism are product costs that consumers can easily cut if need be, by switching to cheaper hotels and travel packages, taking shorter trips, or spending vacations closer to home.

The study cited trends that indicate a tendency for vacationers to look for excursions close to home and to make sure that holidays are an, "experience," such as cultural enrichment or sports-related events. Tourist-related businesses are starting to pick up on that trend and change their focus to attract more of those consumers, the study said.

Developing countries are particularly challenged by this trend, it said, because they will have to compensate for a loss of long-distance travel and overcome the problems of poor infrastructure to receive tourists in places other than beach resorts.

To counteract the negative impact of the crisis, national and local tourist authorities worldwide have taken a number of steps, the study said, ranging from public-private partnerships, marketing campaigns, and the prevention of bankruptcies of tourism-related businesses.

The ILO convened a meeting in October, 2001, the study said and made a number of recommendations, including recognizing the critical role that tourism plays in the economies of developing countries and giving it high priority in national economic planning; organizing campaigns to promote tourism; and helping employers keep more employees on payroll during the crisis.