Image Courtesy: AP, A helicopter drops water on the Cottonwood Fire burning near Beaver, Utah, on Saturday, June 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)Wildfires sweeping across the western United States are becoming a costly complication for the summer travel season, forcing evacuations, closing roads and disrupting access to destinations at a time when national parks, mountain resorts and outdoor attractions are at their busiest.
By mid-August, more than 46,500 wildfires had burned roughly 6.4 million acres across the country. The news agency reported that firefighter entrapments — incidents in which crews are caught or overrun by flames — had reached their highest year-to-date level in two decades.
For the travel industry, the footprint is considerably larger than the acreage burned. Smoke can travel hundreds of miles, while evacuation orders, highway closures and precautionary power cuts can affect destinations that remain physically untouched by fire. A hotel may be open and an attraction undamaged, yet travellers can still cancel because the road in is closed, the air is hazardous or the outlook for the next few days is uncertain.
Spokane fires expose the speed of disruption
The fires around Spokane, Washington, showed how quickly conditions can deteriorate. Three wildfires that broke out around the city in early August spread towards residential and commercial areas, putting about 64,000 people under immediate evacuation orders at the height of the emergency. At least 700 structures were destroyed and more than 250,000 acres were burning across Washington at the time.
Smoke spread well beyond the burn zones, adding another layer of disruption across the drought-hit Pacific Northwest.
A week later, the picture had changed again. Nearly 1,700 firefighters had stopped the three major Spokane-area fires from spreading further and many residents were returning home. Some roads reopened, although the worst-affected communities remained inaccessible. The fires had collectively burned about 10,000 acres and destroyed or badly damaged more than 900 homes.
For hotels, tour operators and travel management companies, that rapid shift from evacuation to partial reopening creates a difficult operating environment. Decisions on cancellations, refunds and itinerary changes may have to be made before there is any certainty over how long a fire — or its smoke — will affect a destination. It is no longer enough to ask whether the hotel itself is safe.
Big Sur brings wildfire risk into a major tourism corridor
California's Big Sur coast has faced its own threat during the summer peak. Evacuation orders were issued in August as the Timber Fire burned through mountainous terrain in Monterey County. The blaze had grown to around two square miles by August 10.
Big Sur presents a particular challenge because its visitor economy is heavily dependent on road access. Highway conditions can determine whether hotels, restaurants and attractions receive visitors even when individual properties remain outside an evacuation zone. The commercial damage can therefore arrive well before the flames do.
Travellers faced with smoke forecasts, changing evacuation maps or possible highway restrictions can switch destinations, shorten stays or cancel altogether. For smaller tourism businesses operating through a concentrated summer season, several disrupted weekends can carry an outsized financial cost. The same problem applies across much of the western US, where outdoor tourism often overlaps with the areas most exposed to extreme heat, drought and wildfire.
National parks face a difficult balancing act
Wildfire conditions are also complicating operations around America's national parks, where peak-season visitor volumes leave relatively little room for disruption. In southwest Utah, the Cottonwood Fire had expanded beyond 144 square miles in June, damaging Eagle Point ski resort and summer cabins and prompting evacuations in surrounding communities. Smoke reached areas around Bryce Canyon, although tourism continued.
Northern Arizona offered a different example of how fire risk can affect travellers without a destination actually burning. Utilities initiated precautionary electricity shut-offs around Grand Canyon Village and Tusayan because of wildfire danger. Visitors could continue entering Grand Canyon National Park, but travellers were advised to download maps before arriving and ensure phones and other devices were charged.
For tourism operators, those measures matter. Power cuts can affect payment systems, communications and accommodation operations. Mobile coverage and navigation become more important when roads are closed or diversions introduced. Visitors arriving on fixed itineraries may have little flexibility if conditions change midway through a trip.
The Grand Canyon also carries the scars of the previous fire season. In 2025, the Dragon Bravo Fire destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim, together with tourist cabins, employee housing and other structures. Reuters reported that the blaze expanded sharply after destroying the lodge. For park gateways that rely heavily on seasonal tourism, the effects of such losses can continue long after a fire is contained.
Smoke widens the travel disruption zone
Perhaps the hardest wildfire risk for the travel sector to manage is smoke. By August 5, 94 major wildfires were burning across 13 states and more than 5.5 million acres had already burned. The fires stretched emergency resources across Washington, Oregon, Idaho and other western states. Smoke does not respect those boundaries. Depending on wind patterns, poor air quality can reach cities and tourism destinations far removed from an active fire, influencing outdoor activities and traveller decisions without producing the highly visible disruption of an evacuation.
Aviation has experienced the consequences before. During the Canadian wildfire smoke crisis of 2023, deteriorating visibility prompted temporary restrictions and delays at US airports, including Newark and Philadelphia. That episode changed the industry's understanding of wildfire exposure. The relevant question for airlines, travel managers and tour operators is not simply how close a fire is to an airport. Wind direction, visibility and air quality can turn a distant wildfire into an aviation or traveller-welfare issue.
Travel businesses rethink the summer risk calendar
For tour operators selling western US itineraries, contingency planning is becoming more important. A multi-stop journey covering national parks, mountain communities and scenic highways can be disrupted by a single closure hundreds of miles into the route. Operators need alternatives that can be activated quickly without dismantling an entire itinerary.
Corporate travel managers face a similar challenge. Air quality, road access and local evacuation notices are increasingly relevant alongside flight status and weather forecasts, particularly for employees travelling to smaller western cities or remote work sites. Wildfires can wipe out leisure bookings while simultaneously generating demand from evacuees, firefighters, utility crews and emergency personnel. Properties may remain commercially busy even as their normal visitor market disappears.
Insurance adds another complication. Coverage depends on the policy and when it was purchased; once a wildfire becomes a known event, related claims may not be covered under newly purchased policies. Travel sellers therefore have an incentive to make cancellation conditions and insurance limitations clearer at the point of booking, particularly during the western fire season.
Destination organisations face perhaps the most delicate task. Broad warnings can discourage visitors from travelling to an entire state when only a small area is affected. Underplaying conditions carries its own risk. The practical response is increasingly granular: real-time information on roads, air quality, closures and evacuation zones rather than blanket assurances that a destination is either "open" or "closed".
With millions of acres already burned in 2026 and the western fire season still active, travel companies face weeks of uncertainty. For operators selling the US outdoors, the challenge is shifting from reacting to individual fires to building wildfire disruption into the way summer travel is planned, sold and managed.
