The tourism industry on the Navajo reservation is slowly recovering from the "mystery illness" that swept through the Four Corners area last month, business owners say.
Scientists from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta have said they believe urine from deer mice and other rodents was responsible for the devastating disease now known as hantavirus-associated adult respiratory distress syndrome.Tourism in June was the worst in recent memory, according to many business owners on the reservation that extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
"It was devastating," said Bill Malone, manager of Hubbell's Trading Post, which has been selling Indian and Southwestern artifacts for more than a century in Ganado, Ariz. "Every time there was a headline in the papers about the mysterious illness, things would be slow here for about a week."
Duane Beyal, spokesman for Navajo President Peterson Zah, said some reservation businesses are reporting sales down 30 percent or more.
However, there are signs that people are again visiting the reservation and other tourist spots, spending money on tours, souvenirs, hotels and restaurants.
Officials for Canyon de Chelly National Monument near Chinle, Ariz., said visitors are showing up this month at about the same rate as they did last July.
Herbert Yazzie, superintendent for the park, said the number of visitors to the campground in June dropped 29 percent while the park visitor's center showed a decline of 80 percent from the same period the year before.
"Lately, we have seen a lot more people," Yazzie said.
John McKean, a spokesman for the New Mexico governor's office, said he also has received reports that things may be improving for businesses in northwestern New Mexico, which experienced the greatest financial fallout from the outbreak.
One reason is that fears calmed once the mystery behind the illness was apparently cleared up in mid-June, officials said.