Nov. 30--PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten -- The aftershocks of Sept. 11 are spreading far beyond this Caribbean tourism haven that Mafleur Fleurineaux has called home for 16 years. 

Poolside at the Great Bay Beach Hotel and Casino, her employer, is almost empty. Now working only five days a week instead of six, she is behind on her rent and can't send the usual $300 a month to her parents in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 

Investors paralyzed by the fallout from the World Trade Center attack forced her husband out of his construction job. Now he can't send money home to Haiti either, forcing the couple and their two teenage sons to live on her meager housekeeping salary. 

"I need it to come back, even to when there were so many tourists we had no days off," said Fleurineaux, 36. "If this goes on beyond January, there will be plenty of problems. I can't take it anymore. It's the first time it's this bad." 

She's lucky to still have a job. On this island, the eastern Caribbean's top duty-free shopping spot long fueled by tourists, fears are running high, as they are throughout much of the region. 

Cabdrivers, bellhops, casino owners and chefs dependent on the region's $18.7 billion tourism industry have little choice but to wait for people in the United States to feel safe enough to fly or confident enough to spend money on a vacation during wartime and recession. 

But the waiting is becoming more desperate every day in the most tourism-dependent region in the world -- where one of every three dollars is tied to the industry and almost half of that comes from American pockets. 

To help prime the pump, Caribbean government and business leaders are uniting behind an unprecedented $16 million joint advertising campaign set to hit some U.S. television screens this month promoting the entire region as a safe haven -- far from the turmoil on the other side of the world and the worries about anthrax up north. 

Separate ad campaigns from Jamaica, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico also are wooing travel agents and potential tourists to remind them to look south. 

"The Caribbean is going to be the first beneficiary of the resumption in the desire to travel, but many people are just not wanting to leave far from home yet," said Josef Forstmayr, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association. 

"It will pass," added Forstmayr, managing director of the Round Hill Hotel in Montego Bay. "It's a psychological thing. We should all be prepared to do less business than last year. It's just common sense." 

Such a blunt and practical assessment is little consolation to Fleurineaux and others on St. Maarten, where advanced bookings have been slashed in half on the eve of the high season, and industry leaders worry about a financial disaster if too many tourists stay home or come too late in the winter. 

Seven hurricanes -- including two major ones causing billions of dollars in damage -- have clobbered the island in the past six years, so the locals are used to some measure of adversity. But two months of nearly empty planes and canceled flights have touched even the most hardened veterans in the Caribbean's scrappy, competitive tourism business. 

"We had no hurricane this year, and we had this. This is worse than a hurricane," said Robert Dubour, general manager of the Great Bay Hotel and a leader in the St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association. 

After the terrorist attacks shut down some airports for up to a week and ground tourism to a halt in September, advance bookings are still down by as much as 30 percent on some islands. 

But the Thanksgiving holiday did offer some hope that a recovery may have begun on some of the islands. 

While cancellations continue to plague hotels in St. Lucia, Jamaica reports that many of its 22,000 rooms were booked for the weekend, thanks, in part, to aggressive advertising and Air Jamaica's 360 weekly direct flights from U.S. cities. 

Buoyed by deep discounts, Puerto Rico tourism officials got some of the island's 3.8 million residents to pick up the slack at local hotels during these tough times. The Bahamas, which depends heavily on U.S. tourists for 60 percent of its economy, is almost back to normal, although the steep dip in September and October dashed chances of tying last year's record 4.2 million visitors. 

"We've benefited from our proximity and safety and security," said Vernice Walkine, deputy director-general for the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. The new ad campaigns "are intended to say to the American market that the Caribbean is the most viable for you because we're close by and we're friendly. You find a sensitive way of selling security." 

That pitch also goes east to Europe to see whether travelers nervous about heading to their usual Mediterranean and Asian haunts will come to the Caribbean. 

Islands such as the Dominican Republic, Martinique and Aruba, which cater more to European travelers, are doing a little better than their neighbors who depend more on the United States. 

St. Maarten is a good example. Some airlines such as Air Canada and US Airways have canceled flights to the island this winter season, while independent charters from Chicago and Detroit will start arriving a month or two later than usual. 

Much of American Airlines' beefed-up weekend schedule will accommodate the owners of time-share apartments or homes in St. Maarten. But tourism officials say that won't soften the blow of absent tourists who would stay in hotels and spend more money, averting layoffs, pay cuts and work reductions that have hit so many so hard. 

Cruise ships, including some steering away from the Mediterranean and Asia, began pouring passengers recently onto Philipsburg's bustling Front Street, which is packed with electronics, liquor and souvenir stores. But the heavy crowds only appeared to be bringing things back to normal. 

"Last month was a disaster -- not a single soul on the street," said Sunny Sharma, 31, of Super Jewelers. "Now we're getting more of a crowd, but people aren't spending. We're living off money from our savings. . . . Bin Laden is a terrible guy." 

Governments and industry leaders are doing everything from slashing room rates to offering tax breaks to stave off an even worse economic downturn. With some last-minute reservations picking up, many hope that delayed payments to utility companies, a break on materials to fix up swanky seaside resorts and cheaper government loans will help. 

But such measures won't shield those who hustle for customers and tips at tourist attractions, the airport and on the street. Cab traffic at night from hotels to casinos and restaurants is almost nil in St. Maarten. A pastor said church offerings were down 20 percent, and some single mothers in the congregation who can't pay the rent cry out for help. 

"At this time last year, I used to make $700 in commissions in a month, and now I don't even make $100," said Roberto De La Cruz, 28, a rental agent with Safari Car Rental who moved from his native Dominican Republic 10 years ago. "I hope it gets better, or I'll just have to get on a boat and leave." 

Others are going with the flow, changing their routines, living within their means until more tourists and money come in. Driving a cab with a sticker that says, "Live for God. Don't sweat the small stuff," Laila Vicente, just back from having a baby, is resigned to her daughter's workweek being cut from five days to three at her hotel job. 

"You understand the situation. What are you going to do?" said Vicente, 37, a native of this 88-square-mile island divided between the Netherlands and France in the 17th century. "People just have to live with it." 

Like other optimists, Vicente is convinced things will get better. 

A look at the guest book at L'Escargot, the 29-year-old French restaurant and institution on Front Street, offers some hope. Just three weeks after they escaped the crumbling twin towers, a young couple who worked in an investment firm there sampled a variety of snails and wine by the sea. 

After tearful hugs from other diners, Kristen Farrell wrote that she "will never forget the meaning of life, love and true friendships," reaffirming that life must go on. 

The next entry was from a L'Escargot regular, the World Trade Center's mall manager who put her fears aside and got on a plane for her annual trip to St. Maarten. 

"After surviving the 1993 WTC bombing and Sept. 11 at the WTC, I realize how lucky I am," Barbara Ramos wrote. "I'm so happy I am enjoying my 28th anniversary with my husband here on St. Maarten. This is a very special time." 

The restaurant's chef illustrated those passages in the guest book by drawing Lower Manhattan's skyline with the twin towers in the middle. 

"They already had booked the trip and didn't cancel it," said owner Joel Morand, who plays Kenny Rogers and one of the Andrews Sisters in the eatery's popular weekly La Cage aux Folles show. "They were happy to be alive." 

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(c) 2001. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.