MIAMI — With a dozen empty yellow taxi cabs lined up outside Miami International Airport, driver Pierre Baptist agonized over the drastic drop-off in business since the terrorist attacks.
"It's very bad," he said. "Yesterday I was at the airport at 7 o'clock (in the morning). I didn't have a fare until 11:30. The day before yesterday it took me seven hours."
Baptist's woes indicate how far the ripple effects from the Sept. 11 attacks have reached. Anxiety over flying has crippled not only airlines but cab drivers, hotels and restaurants, tourist attractions and companies that supply airports.
The hope is that America's jitters are temporary. But some fear a long-term slowdown in air travel and the possibility that layoffs hitting the industry will create a flood of problems for travel-related businesses.
"We're doing some belt-tightening right now," said Marc Giuliani, general manager of Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Atlanta, whose business has plummeted nearly 50 percent since the attacks as convention traffic declines. "If the airlines are not bringing in people, the hotels and rental-car companies and places like us are losing that business."
Airlines have slashed nearly 70,000 jobs in the aftermath of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the nation's history.
"A ripple effect is maybe a good way of putting it because it seems to be a successive wave of bad results for tourism, hotels and the travel industry," said Michael Connolly, chairman of the University of Miami economics department.
At Miami International, shoe shiner Teddy Cogdello expressed optimism that travel will not slow down for long. But he's seen uniform manufactures, restaurants and retail shops go under after airlines have gone out of business.
"Pan Am, Eastern, Midway, National have come and gone and it always uproots those people who rely on them," said Cogdello, who has worked at the airport since 1969.
Sports Travel, a Massachusetts-based agency that organizes sports tour packages, was hit hard after Major League Baseball, the NFL and college football shut down their schedules after the attacks. Company President Jay Smith said he has lost more than $100,000 since the attacks.
"The hotel and the restaurant and the dishwasher and cab driver, you name it, it's going to have an effect on everybody for quite some time," Smith said.
Carl Desantis bought a small American flag last week, but his patriotism goes well beyond snapping up red, white and blue merchandise.
The Clarence, N.Y., resident is now searching out American-made goods.
"If a sense of survival is called patriotism, then I guess I am patriotic," he said.
His interest in classic American labels and American-made goods reflects a new movement that has emerged since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to trend forecasters.
Retailers reported a surge in flag sales, ribbons, and patriotic T-shirts after the attacks. By Sept. 13, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, sold out of 500,000 flags and is now scrambling to restock them. Meanwhile, apparel companies like Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger have reported a sharp increase in sales of red, white and blue merchandise.
But cultural trend observers are starting to see hints that Americans' patriotism is starting to run deeper, from the types of food and clothing they choose to where they dine and shop.
"People want to reaffirm their Americanism," said Marian Salzman, worldwide director of strategy and planning for Euro RSCG, a marketing company based in New York. "It's about eating American comfort food, like cheeseburgers and mashed potatoes. This has been a miraculous transformation."