Where to go from here?
Requirement that visitors to N.M. self-quarantine presents tourism industry with challenges, questions
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s pronouncement that people coming to New Mexico must self-isolate or quarantine for 14 days has perplexed some in the state’s flagging tourism industry.
What happens next isn’t clear — particularly for an industry badly damaged by the coronavirus pandemic.
Lujan Grisham’s most recent executive order, which surely will affect the state’s hotels, does not specify who will determine whether a person is from out of state or has satisfactorily met the 14-day quarantine.
Enforcement is not spelled out in the order, other than to note the state Department of Health and all other executive agencies will “take all necessary steps to ensure the screening and appropriate isolation and quarantine of individuals covered by this order.”
On Thursday, the Governor’s Office acknowledged the most recent effort to block the rise in COVID-19 cases will be difficult.
“Enforcement is not easy,” Lujan Grisham spokeswoman Nora Meyers Sackett wrote Thursday in an email. “No one will pretend that it is. No one will pretend anything about this pandemic and keeping New Mexicans healthy and alive is easy. The only tool we have to begin with is to make the requirement and set the expectation and proceed from there.”
On paper, the state borders are closed to tourists unless a visitor first self-isolates or self-quarantines for at least 14 days.
In reality, it’s mostly business as usual — unless the Department of Health is notified of a visitor not complying with the quarantine. He or she would then be “subject to involuntary isolation and quarantine” by the Health Department.
A complaint against someone who appears to be violating the quarantine can be made by calling the state’s nonemergency COVID-19 line at 833-551-0518 or sending a complaint to covid.enforcement@state.nm.us.
The Governor’s Office is relying on word getting out to visitors that they are not expected to be out and about for the first two weeks of a visit to New Mexico.
“Through conversations with the hospitality industry and other tourism partners the expectation will be that places of lodging will help inform visitors to the state of their obligations under state law,” Sackett wrote.
The only direct communication from the Governor’s Office on the new self-quarantine, which applies to air and ground travel, was Lujan Grisham’s news conference Wednesday and the executive order posted online, said Randy Randall, executive director of Tourism Santa Fe, the city’s convention and visitors bureau.
“As tourism director, there has be no communication on this issue from the state for me at all nor as far as I’m aware for any hotels,” Randall said. “It seems to be totally preventable. From what I have read, none of the infections in New Mexico is from visitors.”
Jeff Mahan, executive director of the Santa Fe Lodgers Association, also questioned whether tourism is feeding New Mexico’s rise in cases.
“We don’t feel there is any evidence that we are creating hot spots,” Mahan said of the tourism industry.
There are a variety of exceptions to the new orders, including health workers, airline employees, first responders, military members and those on “essential business.”
But even then questions remain. “We need clarity about the ‘essential’ worker,” said Rob Black, CEO of the New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry. “There is a real concern they are trying to place an enforcement burden on front-line workers of a store. It’s unfair to ask a store clerk to enforce a health code.”
Black said business entities and chambers of commerce have called the association in confusion about what to do with this order.
“I think it’s important we have good, clear guidelines for the business community,” Black said.
Tourism is a $7 billion-a-year industry in New Mexico and was largely at a standstill from mid-March to mid-May. It has recently been ticking back to life.
The state Tourism Department said it is trying to inform businesses in the industry what the requirements are so they can share them with guests, recommending hotels and others to notify potential customers about the 14-day quarantine.
“That’s one of the best practices,” said Tourism Department spokesman Cody Johnson. “It’s best for the guest to know about it before they make the trip.”
Mahan agreed all hotels and motels should inform guests about the quarantine before arrival, even at the time of booking, but he also noted the inherent tension in the situation.
“There has to be tremendous outreach to everybody that has made reservations,” he said. “There is a great debate. Are we enforcers or informers?”
At the upscale Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi in downtown Santa Fe, it’s standard practice to call or email guests two days before their arrival. As of Wednesday afternoon, that communication included notification of the 14-day quarantine, said Regina
M. Ortiz, the hotel’s sales and marketing director.
A letter left in guest rooms also spells out the quarantine for all out-of-state visitors, with “all” capitalized, underlined and in bold, and states the mask requirements will be “aggressively enforced,” with those words also underlined and in bold.
“Ultimately, our priority is for the safety of guests, staff and the community,” Ortiz said. “We are open to doing what it takes to keep the community safe.”
She said the Anasazi already has seen cancellations since late last week, when coronavirus infections started increasing noticeably in New Mexico. Ortiz noted more than a third of guests since the inn reopened May 1 have been New Mexico residents.
Through May, most Santa Fe hotel guests were just stopping for a night or two on road trips elsewhere, Randall said, but likely half of the visitors have now made Santa Fe a destination.
The new rules have created anxiety within the industry.
“It’s pretty devastating for all of hospitality and tourism,” Mahan said. “It puts the industry at risk. Everybody has July, August, September and October to pay the bills to get to the next May.”