`NORMALLY during this week in July, I'd be expecting to take between £35,000 and £40,000, but we'll be lucky to do £4,000. It's a disaster."

The Belfast businessman who gave this reply when asked how the violence had affected his trade was mirrored this week across Northern Ireland as pubs, restaurants and shops reported a massive drop in takings.

For the North's economy, however, the cost of six days of sustained violence is likely to be incalculable. Businesses and private individuals will claim millions of pounds from the British government to compensate for loss of property, but the real loss - in tourism and foreign investment - will be harder to measure.

The images of burning cars and blocked streets, which brought the North back to the darkest days of the Troubles, are certain to live long in the minds of potential investors and potential visitors.

Tourism was one of the main winners from the ceasefire because while the North may have lacked infrastructure, it does have some of the most beautiful and unspoiled scenery on the island.

Last year, the North's first full year of peace since 1968, the total number of visitors increased by 56 per cent to more than 1.5 million, while the number of pure holiday visitors increased by 68 per cent, from 270,009 to 430,000. The growth in visitor numbers also brought an estimated 20 per cent jump in tourism revenue.

The chairman of the North's Tourist Board, Mr Roy Baillie, has thus far been reluctant to admit that the violence has delivered a serious setback to the tourist industry, but noted euphemistically that "certainly the environment of burning cars and streets is not exactly the one which encourages tourism".

The deputy manager of the Europa Hotel, Mr Doug Heady, said his business had not suffered as "we are not a tourist hotel", but he was quick to add that "overall, the last week would have had a huge impact" on tourism in the North.

Mr Heady, who is a US citizen, said that CNN had been covering the violence in depth since Wednesday and Thursday's edition of USA Today had carried "a picture of an Orangeman throwing stones at the police". Such negative images would have an impact, he said. "Those multi-million dollar corporations thinking of investing in the North, they've gotta be somewhat concerned now.

Even after the end of the IRA ceasefire and the subsequent London and Manchester bombings business confidence in the North had remained relatively high.

Privately, business leaders said there had been no return to violence in the North, while the Industrial Development Board continued to report a high level of interest from foreign investors despite the ceasefire's collapse.

HAT optimism has been severely dented, if not completely shattered, by the events of the past six days as the North witnessed the worst street violence it has seen for decades.

Ironically, the riots and roadblocks may have a larger impact on business in the North than even a full-scale return to paramilitary violence would have had. As has been evidenced over the past 25 years, companies in the North can and did prosper despite shootings, bombings and occasional threats to workers.

Trying to run a business, however, while access to Belfast International Airport and the port of Larne is sealed and most of the main roads are blocked, is a much more difficult exercise.

As one US businessman said at President Clinton's Washington Investment conference last year: "You don't want to build a factory somewhere where your, delivery truck is going to be seen in flames on TV sets across the world."

The reaction of the North's economy minister, Baroness Jean Denton, to this week's violence and the shift in her tone since the Canary Wharf bomb - is evidence of the increased pessimism.

In February, Baroness Denton said while the end of the ceasefire would make her job a lot more difficult, she hoped potential investors would "stand back and examine" the North's economic package. This week, she said the unrest would set the economy back "yards, if not miles

Before the ceasefire, the IDB's most difficult job was persuading investors to even visit the North to see what it had to offer. After last week's violence, its powers of persuasion may be needed once again.