Local retailers are sharing the shock of Tuesday's horrific attacks on the US and facing up to a difficult short term future as travel restrictions and delays look certain to slash the number of visitors to the Island.

Director of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce Diane Gordon said yesterday that they decided to hold Heritage and Harbour nights to assist Tourism Minister David Allen to entertain the Island's guests, but said understandably they were not well attended.

She also said that people were only just coming to terms with the tragedy and the concern now was for the victims of the attack and that it was a matter of waiting and seeing what will happen.

President of the Chamber of Commerce Charles Gosling said yesterday that the last few days had been very busy, and when he walked down Front Street for Harbour Nights on Wednesday evening, retailers said that it was like "hitting a brick wall" on Tuesday morning.

He said: "People are in a state of shock and trying to regain their sense of the world."

He said that Wednesday was very quiet and he expected it to remain that way until the dust had settled.

Mr. Gosling said that many retailers compared Tuesday's terrorist attack to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait when overseas travel by American Tourists was drastically diminished.

He added: "Lots of retailers are very quietly taking stock and figuring that it will be pretty quiet for the short term."

And Mr. Gosling made the observation that whereas Bermuda was less than two hours away from New York, the new security measures implemented by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) and US security forces such as the CIA and FBI would mean that Bermuda is now four hours away.