West Coast Shows the Damage Outbreak May Do to U.S. Businesses
For a look at the potential economic fallout of the coronavirus, San Francisco’s Union Square presents a worrisome sight.
The district -- packed with pricey restaurants, luxury shops and gleaming hotels -- is usually a magnet for tourists and conference-goers. But with travel cooling and a string of conferences canceled in the last two weeks, some businesses are experiencing a sharp and sudden downturn. Shopper traffic is slow. Taxi drivers are sitting idle. Hotel demand is dwindling.
“It’s devastating,” said Anna Marie Presutti, general manager of the 533-room Hotel Nikko, which has seen its occupancy rate plunge from nearly 90% to just below 50%. “We’re experiencing what we experienced right after 9/11.”
While San Francisco has yet to have a confirmed case of the coronavirus, surrounding counties reported some of the country’s first instances of community transmission. That’s keeping tourists and even some residents at home -- a phenomenon already starting to ripple around the country, hitting business owners and threatening broader damage to the economy.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/west-coast-shows-the-damage-outbreak-may-do-to-us-businesses/ar-BB10MD4w?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=hplocalnews
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