9-11 Reprise Are We Repeating History? by Larry Plachno
This photo shows several buses lined up near George Washington’s Mt. Vernon waiting for their tour groups to return. Travel slowed down following the 9-11 tragedy as people feared more terrorism. Some suppliers broke the ice and got the industry moving again by inviting bus tours and other travelers. NBT.
B
ack in 1905, Spanish philosopher George Santayana came up with one of his most famous sayings: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Lately there has been some discussion over the fact that history may be repeating itself. What caused the extended downturn after the 9-11 tragedy is now also holding back the industry and prolonging the problems of the pandemic. If you give me a few minutes of your time I will try to explain how both are connected. 28 • National Bus Trader / July, 2021
Both the aftermath of the 9-11 tragedy and the pandemic carried on for months but for different reasons. One was a fear of terrorism while the other was a fear of the COVID virus. In both situations, the return to normal was slowed because of the lack of encouragement and buying invitations from sellers.
It is interesting that while fear of terrorism remained for months following the 9-11 tragedy, the actual incidents were over in a matter of hours. It could be said that by the time that action was taken to increase safety
or mitigate the situation, the need for it was past. Admittedly, this is hindsight years later but in the chaos and confusion at that time it was not so obvious.
One major impact on the bus industry was that the ongoing Buscon show in Cleveland was shut down. We here at NATIONAL BUS TRADER were also involved in a minor way. Our bookkeeper was scheduled to fly out of Boston that same day and found that the flights had been cancelled. As a result,
