Sep. 17--Dallas-area hoteliers were counting on the autumn months to salvage a year of declining occupancy and revenue brought on by the economic slowdown. 

After the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, that hope is gone. 

Except at hotels that hosted displaced airline passengers, the hospitality industry last week was dead. And the next couple of weeks aren't expected to be much better. 

"There's not a question in my mind that business travel will be significantly down over the next few weeks, and probably until next year," said Jeff DeLong, general manager of the Harvey Hotel DFW and president of the Irving Hotel Association. 

At Esquire Travel Group Inc. in downtown Dallas, agents watched their corporate business disintegrate as customers called in cancellations after the attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. 

"All of our normal sales have come to a complete halt, and we've pretty much refunded everything we've done in the last two months," Esquire travel manager Thomas DuBois said Friday. "We've been losing money hand over fist this week." 

Before last Tuesday, Mr. DuBois had been upbeat about business this year. Sales at his travel agency, which specializes in servicing law firms, had jumped more than 20 percent in 2001. 

Even with U.S. airlines resuming their regular -- although reduced -- flight schedules, Mr. DuBois is worried about how stricter airport security will affect his business. 

"Our clients are impatient, and they're not going to want to check in two hours before their flight," Mr. DuBois said. "I think they're going to give this some time to find some stability before they jump back into travel." 

That reluctance to travel is expected to cause hotel revenue, which has been declining for six months, to drop even more. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts revenue per available hotel room will fall by 3.5 percent to 5 percent across the nation for all of 2001, the worst drop in 33 years. 

That estimate reflects a rapid -- and accelerating -- decline in revenue. 

In the first quarter, revenue actually rose 3.4 percent. But the numbers are expected to decline as much as 10 percent in the second half of 2001, according to Bjorn Hanson, managing partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers' Global Hospitality Industry Group. Revenue improvements predicted for 2002 also have been scaled back. 

Those grim projections have been underscored by the business-meeting cancellations flowing in every day. 

Groups that fill the thousands of meeting rooms around the country are canceling in droves because participants won't be able to or don't expect to travel in the next few weeks. 

In Chicago, this week's American Society of Microbiology meeting has been postponed; it was expected to attract 20,000 visitors. The National Business Aviation Association also canceled its annual trade show, scheduled for this week in New Orleans, where 30,000 people were expected. And at the Anaheim Convention Center, conventions expected to attract an estimated 21,675 delegates during the next several days have been canceled. 

The next big event at the Dallas Convention Center, the annual meeting of the Texas Association of School Administrators and the Texas Association of School Boards, is scheduled to begin Friday. 

"A lot of people will probably drive, so we think these meetings will probably go ahead," said Dave Whitney, president and chief executive officer of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau. 

Hotels with large amounts of meeting space have been trying to find ways to minimize losses. 

In an unprecedented industry move, several major hotel chains -- including Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott -- have dropped cancellation penalties for the next month, hoping customers will reschedule. 

Cancellation, or "no-show" fees, are the hotels' protection for setting aside large amounts of space and can be as high as 100 percent of a contract. 

Early reports show that strategy may be working. Meetings tracked through the Harvey Hotel chain show 70 percent of the cancellations since Tuesday have been rescheduled. 

At the Hyatt Regency Dallas, general manager Steve Vissotzky said the travel business won't recover quickly. "There is going to be a dramatic shift in business, but it's too early to tell how dramatic that shift will be," Mr. Vissotzky said. 

Mr. Vissotzky expects the Hyatt's meeting business to drop 10 percent to 15 percent. 

"These groups themselves can't get a handle what's going to happen," Mr. Vissotzky said. "They're telling us, 'We expect to hold the meeting, but we're not sure who is going to come.' " 

Some meeting planners believe the Sept. 11 attacks will kill bookings for the rest of September, which was already softened by a weak economy. That's expected to make a major dent in the meetings business, since September represents one of the key months for travel. 

Edwin Griffin, president and chief executive officer of Dallas-based Meeting Professionals International, said the group's members, on average, book meetings worth $1.3 billion a month. 

"How long things are put on hold or are delayed will depend on how long it takes us to resolve the terrorist problem," he said. 

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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(c) 2001, The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. HYAT,