ORLANDO, Fla.  (Nov. 20, 2001) -- Nearly one in five business travelers (19%) now say their future business travel plans will be affected by the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the same percentage reported the week after the commencement of military action in Afghanistan, according to the results of a new national business travel survey issued today by Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown (YP&B), a travel marketing services firm that tracks the travel habits and preferences of Americans. 

�The numbers reveal that four out of five business travelers have returned to their pre-September 11th travel patterns. Of those who have changed their business plans, many are still traveling, but driving instead of flying,� said Peter Yesawich, president and CEO of Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown. 

Among business travelers who said their business travel plans would continue to be affected by the terrorist events, nearly seven out of 10 (69%) said they would drive rather than fly whenever they could � up from 53% during the week of October 8th.  More than half (56%) said they would take fewer international business trips, and six out of 10 said they would not travel to specific destinations.  Mentioned most frequently were New York (46%), the Middle East (23%) and Washington, D.C. (23%). 

Among business travelers who indicated they would cancel or take fewer business trips in the future, 29 percent said they would do so because they believed it was �not safe to fly,� yet only 16 percent said that air travel is now �too big of a hassle� and 13 percent said their company had �restricted air travel because of concerns about the economy.�

Approximately four out of 10 business travelers (42%) have surfed the Internet for promotional fares or rates since the 11th of September (slightly fewer than their leisure travel counterparts), and roughly one third have booked either an airline ticket or hotel reservation for a future business trip online. 

Just over four out of 10 business travelers said they were now �less receptive to direct mail solicitations� as a result of the recent Anthrax scare. 

The nationally representative poll was taken with 761 qualified U.S. adult travelers during the week ending Nov. 11 (before the loss of American Airlines flight 578 in New York City).  All estimates are accurate to within +/- 3.5% at 95% confidence. 

Yesawich, Pepperdine & Brown (YP&B), a unit of Panoramic Communications, is America�s leading marketing, advertising and public relations agency specializing in serving travel industry clients.   The company�s offices� Orlando, St. Petersburg (Fla.), Boca Raton (Fla.), New York, Honolulu, Los Angeles, London and Mexico City�serve more than 50 clients worldwide.