Patrick Moscaritolo, chief executive of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, said just a 10 percent drop in travelers to New England would mean a loss of more than $60 million, but it is too early to predict the fallout. The bureau had already expected a 5 percent to 9 percent drop in travel to New England because of the sour economy.
"This is like the perfect storm. We had people who were already holding onto their pounds and euros because of concerns about what is going on in their economy and now we have a major European body saying don't travel to America," Moscaritolo said. "It doesn't get much worse than that."
Travel and tourism business is one of Massachusetts' key industries. It is the fifth-biggest in terms of employment with 300,000 workers, according to the US Department of Labor.
Already, some companies are advising employees to rethink travel needs.
"We're encouraging employees if travel is not mandatory, to carefully consider their travel plans," said Sarah Alspach, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, the British pharmaceutical giant that last year acquired Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Cambridge. But the company has not made any formal travel restrictions, Alspach said.
Amy Peterson, spokeswoman at Avid Technology Inc., a Tewksbury-based video and audio editing software maker, said the company is taking steps after the US government cautioned Americans against nonessential travel to Mexico.
"In addition to communicating a reminder to the Avid staff about the swine flu and precautionary measures that they can take, we're also working with our corporate travel department to potentially hold back any employees that were slated to travel to Mexico on business."
John Dragoon, chief marketing officer of Novell Inc., a Linux software maker in Waltham, said the company was already investing in high-definition teleconferencing gear, as a substitute for costly plane trips. But the swine flu outbreak has given Novell one more reason to rely more on video technology.
"We're not putting a hold on travel. If you have to travel for business reasons, do so, but take extra precautions," he said.
