From Ground Zero to Stranded in Newfoundland: 25 Years Later, Travel Advisors Remember 9/11

This Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks — travel advisors share where they were and what they remember.

Twenty-five years ago, the travel industry stopped. Planes were grounded, borders closed, and thousands of travelers found themselves stranded far from home. For travel advisors, the days and weeks that followed September 11, 2001 were among the most challenging — and most defining — of their careers.

Some were in their offices when the news broke, fielding frantic calls from clients abroad. Others were traveling themselves, caught in the sudden freeze that descended on global aviation. A handful were in New York, close enough to see the smoke.

In Gander, Newfoundland, a small Canadian town of 10,000 suddenly absorbed nearly 7,000 stranded passengers when 38 transatlantic flights were diverted there. Several travel advisors were among them, and their accounts of the community's extraordinary hospitality became some of the most moving stories to emerge from that terrible day.

"I've been in this business for 30 years," one advisor told Travel Market Report. "Nothing before or since has tested us the way 9/11 did. But it also showed what we're for. When everything fell apart, clients needed us more than ever."