MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK businesses bounce back after London bombs

Hotels, restaurants and other British businesses said yesterday that takings were making a surprising recovery just five days after fatal attacks on London.

Four bomb blasts on Thursday killed at least 52 people and wounded more than 700, but Londoners and tourists alike are refusing to be cowed according to shopkeepers' reports.

Some retailers and restaurants said it was too early to comment on the long-term impact of the attacks. But most said business was quickly back to levels seen before the attacks on London's transport system.

"We were braced for the worst but the figures have shown remarkable resilience," said Andy Collingridge, Director of UK Communications for the hotels group Hilton. "Bookings for this week have been fine."

Hilton, whose shares slumped along with other tourist-linked stocks on the day of the blasts, said the biggest impact on business came from customers' transport concerns not terror fears.

"We had a lot of cancellations on Friday and Saturday and we lost half of our business for those two nights, but the weekend cancellations were mostly because people weren't sure if they would be able to get to the location. And the vast majority of those rebooked for the future," Collingridge told reportres.

Tourism concerns remain

British Finance Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday praised Britain's capital city for its resilience.

"London got back to work very quickly. We are all proud of buses and trains that got working within hours," he said during a European Union finance minister meeting in Brussels. "It will take some time to examine the full economic impact ... the people of London will not be cowed by terrorists."

The Restaurant Group Plc which owns more than 250 restaurants on Britain's high streets, including Caffe Uno, said it closed all its London businesses in the morning on Thursday after the attacks but soon reopened.

"They opened on Friday, which was naturally quite a quiet day because some people could not get into London and then this week they have found business returning back to normal," said a spokesman for the group.(Agencies)