National park entry fees, gas prices are squeezing this Hopi tour guide

There were fewer visitors to America’s national parks last year than in 2024, including at the Grand Canyon. And a new $100 per person fee for international visitors at some of those parks — again, including the Grand Canyon — may be contributing to a slowdown in other aspects of the tourism economy.

Bertram Tsavadawa is a member of the Hopi Tribe and offers tours of the reservation through his company, Ancient Pathways Tours; he’s been doing that for nearly 25 years.

He also does some consulting with museums and other institutions — and as he told The Show, his tour business has been really slow lately.

Full conversation

BERTRAM TSAVADAWA: OK, well, yeah, from the beginnings of the year to this current time of the month of July, I have noticed and seen actually a lower number of visitors coming to our reservation land. The first two months, it was going good and OK, but I started getting cancellations from other individuals and families coming from other countries, just understanding and knowing that there were different other types of fees imposed on the individuals coming from other countries to the national parks.

So like the Grand Canyon National Park, they imposed a fee on top of the entrance fee or the vehicle fee to individuals going to visit the Grand Canyon. And myself, as I mentioned, I’ve been getting cancellations from individuals coming from other countries and that they are not making their travels to the United States as well.

And generally, in our Southwest area of Arizona, we do have the fires going on, so some of that affected some individuals of being outdoors with respiratory problems or issue concerns with the smoke, haze and, you know, the winds picking up, blowing the dust around as well.

MARK BRODIE: Is a big part of your business international travelers?

BERTRAM TSAVADAWA: Yeah, ’cause I do as well have connected with other different travel sites and companies from other countries. And yes, ’cause they’ve been establishing to have, say some of my information on either on their websites or from past publications.

MARK BRODIE: So you mentioned the international visitors like having to pay higher fees to go to national parks. You mentioned wildfires.

Are there other factors that you think are at play for why fewer people are coming to look around on the Hopi Reservation?

BERTRAM TSAVADAWA: Another one is with, you know, the gas prices, you know, that’s that was, you know, really skyrocketing high from the beginnings of the year and just of all this unsettlement with, you know, these conflicts as the wars that are occurring and happening. So that’s been another kind of toll that’s taken upon as well with the gas prices.

MARK BRODIE: What has this meant for your business? Like are you able to keep doing this?

BERTRAM TSAVADAWA: That’s one of the things I was already contemplating about within these past two months, ’cause it’s been it has been really slow, and also because of these extreme temperatures, you know, these record-breaking hot temperatures that we’re receiving in our state.

And so I’ve been trying to, you know, work on my being self-employed as a artisan and working on my crafts and that. But pretty much that’s not supplementing, which I do normally kind of, you know, is steady with doing a lot of the guiding and that.

But yeah, again, just within these past even just within the past two months, it’s been a very slow with guiding. So like for this week, I only had one program, and I don’t have another one scheduled until next week, Thursday.

But the past three weeks, you know, I didn’t have anything, so that got me to do my crafts and that. But, but again, I don’t, I’m not always out vending or set up at the say like the main hub of the reservation is the Hopi Cultural Center. I’ve been contemplating I think I just need to apply for a real job.

MARK BRODIE: Well, so you mentioned you have one tour this week. Like in better times, what would be a typical week for you? How many tours would you be giving?

BERTRAM TSAVADAWA: Normally and usually, you know, like when I look at the calendars and that, even just looking at some that I might still have from past years, it was like four or five times out of the week, which was the busy months or, you know, like the summer times. But it does varies year by year.

It’s never always a steady number flow of visitors, you know, each year. It it varies. But this year, again, has been a very, very slow and low-number turnout.

MARK BRODIE: Well, are you able to try to get more domestic visitors, either from Arizona to come up north or other just folks from the U.S.?

BERTRAM TSAVADAWA: Yeah, yeah, there’s been some of that, but again, just with knowing the extreme temperatures, gas prices and, you know, just again, just different factors that there’s not as much. But I do connect and, you know, there are some that have are already pre-contacted me for upcoming months, but, you know, again, it’s not so immediate to have some of this seasonal work.

MARK BRODIE: What does it mean to you personally if there aren’t as many people coming to visit your part of the world?

BERTRAM TSAVADAWA: Oh, it, it does take a drastic toll even amongst, you know, my Hopi people. You know, just still barely coming out of, you know, the the 2020 COVID and all that, it really affects, you know, a lot of the people that are self-employed as the artisans and that, or depending on, you know, if they could sell their crafts and their wares that they create.

MARK BRODIE: It seems like the kind of thing where it’s not like there’s a million other job opportunities in that part of the state, right? If you can’t do this, if visitors aren’t coming, it seems like it kind of puts folks like you in a tough spot.

BERTRAM TSAVADAWA: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I, you know, I feel the crunch and everything, and, you know, just doing, you know, the best that I can to still, you know, support, you know, the family and, of course, you know, if you have a vehicle, you got to have gas to, to to get around and and to go to these places, you know, like again for consultations.

But myself as, you know, just personally and my own personal time, you know, being a farmer and member of the Corn Clan, I still been tending to my fields and that, so. But yeah, it it, you know, again, it varies to certain individuals. But, you know, there’s still people that are employed out here on the reservation, having their work or location or whatever of their occupations that they are working and servicing.

But again, with the low number of visitors and visitation on the reservation, a lot of the again, the self-employed artisans and craftspeople are, you know, feeling, you know, that crunch or, you know, not having to be selling the items or having the visitors come.

MARK BRODIE: Do you think that the numbers will come back up at some point?

BERTRAM TSAVADAWA: It probably would vary, because even just like, you know, as I mentioned, you know, coming back from 2020 and this COVID era, it’s still been kind of like a slow comeback. It’s not a strong.

Even the one village that regulates their own guided tours with their own village guides is the First Mesa village of Walpi, and just with personal communication with the guides there, they also notice of a, you know, drastic drop of numbers of visitors.

MARK BRODIE: Bertram Tsavadawa is a member of the Hopi Tribe and runs the guiding company called Ancient Pathways Tours on the Hopi Reservation. And this is The Show.

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