Business travel to India on hold
Companies in Philadelphia and worldwide were clamping down on travel to Mumbai yesterday, as the terrorist attacks in India reverberated on many fronts.
Companies in Philadelphia and worldwide were clamping down on travel to Mumbai yesterday, as the terrorist attacks in India reverberated on many fronts.
GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C., which is based in London and has large operations in the Philadelphia area, said it had suspended employee travel to India for now.
AstraZeneca P.L.C., which has extensive operations in Wilmington and a research and development facility in Hyderabad, India, said it had suspended employee travel to Mumbai.
Merck & Co. Inc. also said it had suspended travel to Mumbai. Merck, which is based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., and manufactures vaccines in West Point, could not provide information about its Indian operations because the company was closed in the United States for the Thanksgiving holiday.
AppLabs, an information technology outsourcing company with offices in Philadelphia, employs 1,600 people in Hyderabad, about a one-hour flight from Mumbai. The company said its employees were safe.
The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton school said two employees for the Indian edition of its Knowledge@Wharton online publication were safe. Editor Mukul Pandya said one employee had left the office just a half-hour before the attack.
The publication had launched its Indian edition two years ago at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel, one focus of the attacks.
"I can very vividly imagine all the places where the fighting is going on," said Pandya, who was at the launch.
The attacks hit India's tourist industry at the start of peak season, compounding problems for airlines and hotels facing the slowest growth in visitor numbers in five years.
"People are scared," said H.A. Subramanian, general manager of Shiv Niwas in Udaipur, Rajasthan, a converted royal palace, told Bloomberg News. "Travel agents will not take the risk of bringing people to India at least in the next couple of months. The market was already affected by the financial crisis."
Subramanian said cancellations already were coming in for the hotel, owned by the Maharana of Mewar.
Terrorist attacks aimed at foreign tourists, such as the Mumbai assaults, may hurt hotel bookings and airline-ticket sales for more than a year. The island of Bali, which accounts for one-third of all foreign tourists to Indonesia, had not recovered a year after the 2002 bomb that killed 202 people, according to a World Bank report.
The Taj and Oberoi hotel, another target in the attacks, are popular with international visitors to Mumbai, India's business hub. Oberoi guests have included News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and Microsoft Corp. cofounder Bill Gates, according to the hotel's Web site. Mick Jagger and Prince Charles have stayed at the Taj, according to the Web site of owner Tata Group.
Unilever chief executive officer Patrick Cescau and incoming CEO Paul Polman escaped unhurt from the Taj Mahal hotel after the attacks.
