A major weather or climate disaster like floods, wildfires or drought can affect tourism into the area for months after the event ends. We saw this in 2016 in the Southeast with the wildfires in the southern Appalachians, where visits to Gatlinburg TN and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park were reduced by peoples’ perceptions that it was not safe to travel there. I suspect that Puerto Rico is seeing the same thing now with the aftereffects of Hurricane Maria. But many of these areas depend on local tourism to bring money into the region and to keep the locals employed. Here is a story from AFAR magazine about how Cape Town, South Africa, is handling the news that they may run out of water in their current extreme drought and why you should still go and visit. You can read it here.
