Heritage Business Journal

Monument Valley, Navajo Nation.

Heritage tourism is on the increase, states a Native American Times article (3 April 2012) by Susan Montoya Bryan. Based on a report commissioned by the Navajo Nation from Northern Arizona University, data show that some 600,000 visitors made nearly $113 million in direct purchases on the reservation in 2011. That represents a 32 percent increase in tourism spending since 2002.

Surprisingly, this increase occured over the same period when U.S. gasoline prices rose from approximately $1.80 to $3.90 a gallon. The Navajo Nation, a soverign nation since 1868, is the largest Native American reservation in the United States. It covers 27,000 square miles in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Traveling to the Nation by automobile, and there are few other options for visitors, is a significant trip from almost anywhere. However, the article states that U.S. visitors to the Nation were actually down in the period since 2002. It was non-U.S. visitors, primarily from Germany and France, that were up more than 11 percent and responsible for the increase.