On Monday, May 4, non-essential businesses around Arizona that had been closed since March 30, were allowed to partially reopen for delivery, curbside pickup or appointments.
Numerous businesses in Sedona took advantage of the easing of regulations and opened their doors. Some opened just to return to work — not necessarily because they expected sales or a giant resurgence in foot traffic and customers — but just for a semblance of normalcy.
After a month of closed and locked doors, on Friday, May 8, businesses around Arizona can reopen to allow customers on their premises as long as they employ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggestions for sanitation and social distancing measures.
In the late afternoon on Monday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey announced salons and barbershops would also be allowed to open on May 8.
Salons and barbershops generally have low occupancy of customers. As their interaction with customers is one on one, generally limited in scope and barbers, aestheticians, hair stylists and beauticians are hygienic by the nature of their profession — dirty barbers don’t stay in business long — so it makes logical sense that they would be allowed to open.
At the same press conference, Ducey announced that restaurants and coffee shops would be allowed to reopen on Monday, May 11, if they maintain social distance for their customers and check the symptoms of the wait staff and kitchen staff when they begin their shifts.
As we stated previously, these establishments will not magically fill businesses to the brim with customers.
Unfortunately, there simply aren’t that many customers.
A good majority of Arizonans, especially the elderly and those in high-risk groups, are not willing to risk their health or safety to go out for a burger when they can continue to do takeout, delivery, or go to the grocery store, then home and make their own.
This includes the thousands of daytrippers coming to Sedona from Phoenix, Tucson and the rest of our state to enjoy Oak Creek Canyon or our trails.
Tourists are coming to Sedona’s trails precisely to get away from people. Some Sedona residents freaking out about the “outsiders” in our town seem to have forgotten that what daytrippers really want when they visit a rural community like ours surrounded by wilderness: No other people. They mostly want to leave home and get to the canyon, the trail or the creek with as little interaction with strangers as possible.
Unfortunately, with many trails and trailheads closed by U.S. Forest Service officials at the urging of Sedona City Council members, Sedona area leaders have forced visitors and locals to use fewer and fewer public trails, forcing more people into tighter spaces and increasing the risk of catching COVID-19 on these trails.
With so many creek locations closed in the canyon and southwest of Sedona, visitors are congregating where they can, so portions of the creek are devoid of bodies while others are as packed as Memorial Day weekend.
Even as businesses open, Sedona will not see a giant influx of tourists around the country suddenly coming here because Ducey lifted his restrictions. Some hotels and resorts remain closed. Those that are open are still not expecting big numbers of lodgers.
For the time being, we will get only a proportional handful of out-of-state or international visitors. The vast majority of people staying in Sedona hotels will be from Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and California — people who can drive here within a day.
The number of tourists coming to our region from around the country and around the world will remain low and probably won’t return to pre-pandemic levels until perhaps 2021 or 2022. Quite simply, people are afraid to fly, and can we blame them?
Essentially passengers have to spend hours at a busy airport around thousands of strangers from around the world, then sit in a flying germ can for several hours breathing the same air and catching whatever diseases their fellow passengers might have, whether they sit in first class or in the back of coach, then land at a new airport and wait for luggage, before trying to make it to their hotel. The prospect makes a regional vacation by car, trail or bus in their home state or native country far more appealing,
Businesses are opening, but a return to “normal” will be slow. Many businesses simply won’t survive even this reopening. If you do venture out, please share your wealth with the restaurants and retail stores whose employees have suffered.
Spend your federal $1,200 check on local goods and local services rather than shopping online with corporate big box stores. Obey the health restrictions they put in place. Stay safe.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
