WELCOME MATS HAVE FEW FOOTPRINTS.

The tourism industry reeled over the past week as many prospective travelers, clearly anxious about the possibility of further terrorist attacks, opted to remain at home.

Las Vegas was a ghost town, with casinos all but deserted, hotel rooms empty and cabbies waiting idly by the curb. New York all but begged people to come back to its museums and theaters. Even in such idyllic locales as Hawaii and the Caribbean, beaches were sparsely populated.

Airlines laid off thousands of employees and implored Congress for bailout funds, and also reduced many fares in an effort to lure passengers back. Travel agents, fearful that many of their small businesses might be wiped out, also petitioned Congress for assistance.

And there was widespread concern that the downturn in travel business might linger for some time.

``I think it's going to hurt for a while,'' said Terry Trippler, a travel analyst with OneTravel.com in Minneapolis. ``When we had the Gulf War, there was a threat of terrorism at that time and there was a drop-off in air travel for 30 to 45 days. Now it (the terrorism onslaught) has actually happened, and (providers) can expect a drop in travel over the next three to five months.''

As a result, many popular travel destinations are bracing for hard times.

Las Vegas reported that in the past week alone, some 50,000 conventioneer visits were canceled, an estimated hit of $61.3 million in nongaming revenue, according to the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority. Further, more than 240 conventions planned for this month, October and November have been canceled. Last year, the city drew 11 percent of its estimated 36 million visitors from conventions.

Even the quickie wedding chapels were quiet. City officials noted that Las Vegas typically receives 300 wedding license applications a day; last week, the number of applications plummeted by 40 percent.

One Las Vegas locale seemed to be getting an inordinate amount of attention from the visitors who were on the Strip: the New York-New York Hotel and Casino. The hotel facade features replicas of New York skyline landmarks, and its 150-foot model of the Statue of Liberty became an impromptu shrine, as mourners placed candles, flowers and cards at its base to memorialize the victims of the World Trade Center attacks.

(The hotel's skyline is supposed to represent New York of the 1940s, and does not include the World Trade Center's twin towers.)

The real New York, meanwhile, pleaded with travelers to return, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani telling the nation that the best way people can help the city is to come there and spend money.

NYC & Co., the city's official tourism marketing organization, set up toll-free hot lines with live operators who can update prospective visitors on what cultural institutions, theaters and other related businesses are open (many of them shut down in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 suicide attacks).

The organization's goal is to get out the message that New York's famed theaters and museums are open, and that double-decker sightseeing buses are rolling along the streets of Manhattan once more. Information: [phone]; www.nycvisit.com.

Hawaii, a popular destination for West Coast travelers - and thousands of miles from the sites of the terrorist attacks - nonetheless suffered last week, with hotel occupancy rates dropping to as low as 35 percent; at this time of year, 70 percent occupancy is customary. But tourism officials noted that many visitors only postponed trips rather than canceling them.

The slowdown forced two Hawaii-based airlines, Hawaiian and Aloha, to cut interisland flights because of dramatically reduced demand.

Hawaii also experienced a sharp drop in Japanese tourism - a vital component of the state's economic health. Gov. Ben Cayetano, remarking that ``as the tourist industry goes, so will the rest of Hawaii's economy,'' said he plans to visit Japan soon with the message that vacationing in his state is a good way to help the United States in its time of crisis.

Cayetano also said he is considering waiving airport landing fees to save airlines some of the $36 million they pay annually for flying into Hawaii.

The tourism picture was no brighter in other lands of shimmering waters and sun-washed beaches.

In Cancun, Mexico, hotel occupancy was way down and reservations were being canceled, said Carl Sontag of Cancun Online, a Web site that handles online reservations for the resort enclave.

The enormous Sun Atlantis resort in Nassau, Bahamas, reported that it was just 17 percent occupied and was forced to close two of its three hotel towers.

Attendance at Florida theme parks is also said to be off, along with hotel occupancy and airline travel.

Cruise lines are also hurting, as passengers cancel vacation plans and encounter difficulty flying to ports. Industry leaders are anticipating that bookings will pick up, however, as air travel returns to something approaching normal.

The airlines, struggling in the face of falling passenger counts, are taking steps to enhance that prospect. Many fares are quietly being reduced in an attempt to stimulate business.

On the Bestfares.com Web site, publisher Tom Parsons reported that it costs the major airlines 12 cents per mile to transport a passenger, but that some air fares are being offered that work out to less than 3 cents per mile. At the start of the weekend, his Web site listed round-trip fares from Los Angeles to New Orleans for $156, and Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for $157.

A random check of Orbitz.com, a Web site maintained by several major carriers, turned up a Los Angeles-to-Baltimore round-trip fare slightly over $200 for travel in early October.

Travelers who aren't nervous about getting into the air again are finding extreme security conditions at the nation's airports.

In light of the Federal Aviation Administration's stringent new rules against sharp objects in carry-on luggage, airport official Mike McCarron at San Francisco International offered an inventory of items confiscated from just one gate that serves Delta and Northwest domestic flights: scissors, 12-inch steel spikes, nail files, nail clippers, corkscrews, pocket knives.

Software consultant John Simpson, who flew from Chicago to San Jose last week, said the security at Chicago O'Hare was unlike anything he had ever seen. ``Before, they pretty much just waved a wand over your shoes and belt buckle if you set off the metal detector and then let you walk onto the plane,'' he said. ``Now they have people take off their shoes so they can inspect them.''

FAA spokeswoman Tammy Jones acknowledged that the level of security precautions varies from airport to airport. ``We issued our standards,'' she said, ``but (airports and airlines) can go above and beyond those.''

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Photo: Las Vegas Boulevard South, which is normally jammed with cars, is wide open the week after the terrorist attacks in the East.

Joe Cavaretta/Associated Press