BOSTON (AP) – The mounting costs of the fatal accident in the Big Dig tunnel range from hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost tolls to a loss in tourism.

Restaurant owners and retailers say traffic jams and detours from the closed Interstate 90 connector tunnel complex have made it hard to get deliveries on time. Hotel managers say travelers are scared and confused.

But even as Gov. Mitt Rommey shut down another tunnel for safety concerns Thursday, most industry leaders said what is hurting their bottom line the most is the false perception that Boston is closed for business.

“It’s not so much as a traffic issue, but a mind-set issue,” said Alexis Contant, vice president of marketing for the Boston Design Center, which is located in the rapidly developing South Boston waterfront area that has been affected by the tunnel closures.

Contant joined about 50 other people at the new Westin Hotel across from the site of the tunnel collapse on Thursday for a meeting with Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who has been appointed by Romney to address the concerns of the Boston business community.

“There’s a general mind-set, I believe, throughout the state right now that if you can avoid coming into Boston, perhaps that’s the right thing to do,” Healey said. “I think the message we need to send out today is that you don’t need to do that, that in fact you should come to Boston that Boston is open for business.”

Since the July 10 collapse of four 3-ton ceiling tiles on a car in the Interstate 90 connector tunnel, two tunnels have shut down to traffic with a third that had been open to buses being closed on Thursday.

The closing of the connector, an important link from South Boston to Logan International Airport, has diverted drivers to surface streets and jammed traffic through Boston’s downtown. It’s also slowed deliveries between the airport and the rest of the city.

Richard Stavis, chief executive of Stavis Seafoods Inc., said his company’s missed some deliveries of fresh fish from the West Coast, and worried that clients would go elsewhere if people believed his business couldn’t get the job done. “Miami is one of the biggest seafood ports in the country and they’re not experiencing problems,” he said.

Contant, too, wondered whether news about traffic, detours and safety problems would keep clients away.

“It’s a very grave concern for us to not be able to give the best service,” she said. “People will find an alternative.”

Mayor Tom Menino, who was not at the meeting but sent representatives from his office, echoed the concerns of the business owners in an interview later.

“I think there are some concerns. You say it enough, people believe you,” he said.

“What we’re losing is some of the leisure travel to our city – the people who come on the weekend,” he added. He noted, however, that there had been two conventions at capacity last week.

The city of Boston has spent about $500,000 so far in Big Dig-related costs.

, including about $60,000 each weekday on traffic management. Extra ambulances, parking enforcement officers, tow trucks, detour signs and fire officials are also bringing up the tab.

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority has spent thousands of dollars to bus conventioneers to the airport and Fidelity Investments, which has an office in the South Boston waterfront area, set up water taxis and other shuttle service for its workers.

Mike Gaquin, Fidelity’s vice president for business continuity, said there hasn’t been an impact on the firm’s business, though employees have experienced some hassles that they’ve tried to mitigate with communication and extra transportation options. Some workers have also been able to telecommute.

Toll revenues from the Massachusetts Turnpike’s airport tunnel plunged by about $500,000 – more than 50 percent – in the five days after the collapse, compared to a year ago, the Turnpike Authority said. The agency lost an average of about $108,000 per day over the three days immediately following the accident.

Healey said her tasks are now to help put together a plan to persuade people to come back into the city. She said one challenge will be once the tunnels are open again to make people feel safe about going through them. “Once we have everything fixed and ready for business, how do we get that message out as broadly and as effectively as the publicity, the unwanted publicity, that we got last week,” she said.