Hoteliers are claiming that the airport chaos caused by last week's foiled terror attacks has had little discernible impact upon occupancy rates. This is heartening news - if what they say is true, and air travellers are indeed developing thicker skins when it comes to security alerts. But could this simply be a case of the good old British stiff upper lip? Are hoteliers remaining outwardly optimistic, for fear of talking the market into a decline and sparking a crisis of confidence among prospective guests?
Certainly, the latest figures from hotel benchmarking service The Bench suggest this might be the case. Their weekly figures point to a distinct downturn in the growth rate of average room rates at hotels in Greater London, when compared with the same period last year, since last Thursday's alert.
Of course, it's hard to detect trends this soon after a security alert: figures are bound to be skewed, for example, by guests extending stays owing to cancelled flights, or preferring to remain here rather than braving the airports. But one thing is for certain: this type of interruption can only be harmful for tourism and hospitality in the UK.
The hospitality industry is as fragile as it is currently buoyant. In a moment, a health scare such as foot-and-mouth, or a security issue such as the one that crippled Heathrow last week, can devastate it. And when hospitality suffers, a host of other business sectors - retailers, taxi firms, rail operators - suffer with it.
Given this fragility, it is essential that the Government does all it can to bolster our reputation overseas. It may not be able to rule out the possibility of fresh attacks upon us, but it can work hard to maintain the nation's profile as a leisure destination of choice. And it can take steps to ensure half-baked ideas such as a proposed bed tax aren't allowed to scupper the industry's progress.