Numerous Connecticut businesses began restricting or eliminating U.S. travel before Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday urged a halt to out-of-state travel, as worry over the coronavirus quickly began changing the rules of commerce.
“Everyone is taking it seriously,” Joe Brennan, president of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said. “It’s high profile for CEOs.”
Companies acted before Lamont’s suggestion, Brennan said, and policies adopted by business continue to rapidly evolve with the spread of the virus.
The CDC has focused its advisories on international travel, cautioning against nonessential travel to China, Italy, Iran, Japan and South Korea. Lamont has placed an immediate freeze on state employee domestic and international travel outside of Connecticut and is urging state agencies to use teleconferencing options. He has asked businesses to consider the same restrictions.
The Hartford Financial Services Group I.nc, a major employer in Hartford, has suspended all nonessential business travel in the U.S. and abroad “until further notice,” spokesman Matthew Sturdevant said. The insurer, which acted last week, has asked vendors to follow the same guidance on nonessential travel and is encouraging employees who host large-group meetings to do so virtually, he said.
At Farmington-based ConnectiCare, owed by New York-based EmblemHealth, the health insurer said it has been keeping an eye on recommendations by the Center of Disease Control, but took measures several steps further 10 days ago than recommended by the CDC.
Instead of restricting to the handful of countries with the worst outbreaks of the coronavirus, ConnectiCare, with 650 employees, has put a stop to all international travel, ConnectiCare president Eric Galvin said.
“While we haven’t halted all domestic travel, we have looked at nonessential domestic travel, and we have said we want to cancel all that,” Galvin said. “And then frankly some of the more pressing types of meetings, we’ve moved to virtual.”
“We have very, very few people who have to move about the region or the country unless its absolutely necessary,” Galvin said.
United Technologies Corp., the Farmington-based jet engine and aviation equipment manufacturer with a global reach and 19,000 employees in Connecticut as of June, adopted its travel policies last week. The aerospace giant is recommending that all nonessential domestic business travel be deferred, spokeswoman Michele Quintaglie said.
“Can it not be handled by Webex or videoconferencing?” she said. “Lots of different guidance is going out.”
Travelers Cos. Inc., a property-casualty insurer with 6,500 employees in downtown Hartford, said it is following the CDC guidelines, banning travel to China, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea.
The insurer has not placed restrictions on domestic travel but is “strongly encouraging” employees to use technology to communicate, such as video conferencing. The insurer is monitoring its policies day-to-day, a spokesman said.
As companies hunker down, experts say there will be real costs for business especially if the coronavirus persists for an extended period.
David Griggs, president and chief executive of the MetroHartford Alliance, said companies could lose sales as industry conferences are canceled and travel is curtailed. Conferences are a crucial place for companies to meet new customers.
“Some sales might not happen that would otherwise happen with that personal interaction,” Griggs said. “So will there be an effect? Probably. Will businesses find other ways to make connections? Some.”
Company travel to where customers are located is essential in developing relationships, especially with new customers, said Fred V. Carstensen, professor of finance and economics at UConn in Storrs and director of the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis.
“Say you’re a [Pratt & Whitney] and you get components from Turkey, from China, from Germany and you have to send people out to those places to deal with issues,” Carstensen said. “Yeah, you can do some by teleconferencing. You can do some by telephone. But there’s a lot of stuff that works a hell of a lot better if you can be on-site and on-hand.”
Carstensen said the steps companies are now taking will be “inherently disruptive.”
“And it’s really unnerving to have this, and we can’t say what the time frame is,” Carstensen said.
Jamison Scott, executive director of the New Haven Manufacturers Association, said concerns about supply problems due to the coronavirus first came to his attention in mid-February. Last week, a manufacturer canceled all international trips and incoming visitors, he said.
On Friday, Amazon and other companies restricted domestic travel, opening the door for Connecticut companies to halt domestic travel, he said.
“It’s now domestic,” said Scott, a Woodbridge manufacturer of industrial duct equipment.
“What people said last Wednesday is changing,” he said. “Everybody is definitely being proactive.”
Colin Cooper, the Lamont administration’s chief manufacturing officer, said he has not detected a consensus yet among manufacturers.
“People are adapting to changing approaches daily as the situation evolves,” he said.
Unlike administrative workers, manufacturers can’t easily work remotely, Cooper said.
Lamont’s order to state workers will apply to a Danvers, Mass., meeting Thursday of a Defense Department economic development program open to officials of the New England states. Cooper and others from Connecticut will be attending remotely, he said, and by the time of the meeting, “everyone may be plugging in electronically.”
