It will take some time, but Hub business leaders were confident in the wake of yesterday’s Boston Marathon blasts that the city will bounce back and that visitors will not be scared away by the cowardly attack.
“It’s such a devastating event to the families whose family members lost their lives or were injured or maimed,” Pat Moscaritolo, president of the Greater Boston Convention Visitors Bureau, told the Herald. “It’s just so horrible, but Americans are resilient, so I am confident that they’ll rise up and they will travel and they will travel to Boston.”
He added that area attractions such as the Freedom Trail could have new meaning for locals and tourists after yesterday’s attack, which came on Patriots Day, a holiday marking the first salvos of the American Revolution.
Fifteen blocks of Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood were closed off as a crime scene yesterday while investigators gathered evidence related to the bombings. The city’s thriving shopping district along Boylston and Newbury streets will likely be on lockdown for days during the normally busy Massachusetts school vacation week.
“Obviously, businesses will be impacted. However, the priority is for the public safety and the health of the community,” Meg Mainzer-Cohen, president of the Back Bay Association, told the Herald. “This will be similar to incidents in New York. We will absolutely recover from this as a community by pulling together and making sure it never happens again.”
Two huge explosions rocked the Marathon finish line on Boylston Street near Copley Square just before 3 p.m. yesterday. In a White House press conference, President Obama said it remains unclear who was responsible for the bombings, but he praised the Hub for its toughness in times of disaster.
“Boston is a tough and resilient town. So are its people,” said Obama. “I’m supremely confident that Bostonians will pull together, take care of each other, and move forward as one proud city. And as they do, the American people will be with them every single step of the way.”
Local business leaders echoed the president’s words yesterday, saying the Hub would ultimately rebound from the attack.
“It shakes people and certainly those businesses in that area are going to have a bit of a recovery. We saw it certainly with 9/11 here in Boston when we were so much on lockdown here for a while,” said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. “It’s normally a very big time for the economy leading into the Marathon and leading out of it and all through school vacation week, but how you gauge it (the impact) is impossible to say at this point.”
George Regan of public relations firm Regan Communications said businesses obviously took a “huge hit” yesterday when instead of enjoying Marathon Monday by dining out or shopping, Hub visitors fled in terror.
“This will be impacting (businesses) for a while,” said Regan, who represents several hotels and restaurants downtown. “It will come back, but it takes a while. You couldn’t imagine this. It’s very hard. This really is a hit for the city.”
For some businesses, it was all hands on deck as they pitched in to help out yesterday.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency partnered with Clear Channel Outdoor to provide public safety messages on digital billboards visible on Interstate 93 in Medford and Stoneham. Updates included information regarding family meeting sites, areas to avoid, cancellations and postponements.