Garrett's Desert Inn general manager Robert Ruiz received a telephone call Monday afternoon from a travel broker wanting to bring five Yale students to Santa Fe later in the year.

"The first words out of his mouth were that these students were from the United States and not anywhere near the places where the swine flu epidemic was at this time," Ruiz said.

So far, so good. While the travel industry as a whole keeps a wary eye on the swine flu outbreak, Santa Fe's hospitality industry hopes to remain insulated from the scare as travelers make their bookings for the summer season.

"We may have to have a quick meeting to make our staff aware of the symptoms (of swine flu)," said Ruiz, who serves as president of the Santa Fe Lodging Association. "But at this point it hasn't caused a large amount of concern."

At another downtown lodging, the Inn of the Governors, general manager Sam Gerberding said, "So far nobody's even mentioned it. It's a nonevent so far."

But Gerberding recalled a very big disease-related event in 1993 — the hantavirus outbreak in northwestern New Mexico.

"I was in Idaho when the Four Corners area was suffering from the hantavirus," he said. "In Idaho, it was a big deal. Everybody said, 'Don't drive in New Mexico.' "

Art Bouffard, executive director of the New Mexico Lodging Association, expressed concern for what the swine flu might mean in New Mexico, even though the state had no reported cases as of late Monday afternoon.

"That's all we need," he said. Thanks to the global economic downtown, he said, "our occupancy reports don't look very good."

"But at least it's a good thing for New Mexico that we haven't seen any cases yet," he said.

Bouffard hopes the anxiety soon fades "and that things don't become terribly worse than they are right now."

A source of concern among local tourism officials was Monday's announcement by European Union Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, who urged Europeans to delay nonessential travel to parts of the U.S. and Mexico affected by swine flu.

Vassiliou toned down earlier statements in which she had referred to all of North America.

The U.S. Travel Association's president and CEO, Roger Dow, warned the industry to be prepared for "media hysteria" threatening air travel, lodging and meetings, similar to that caused by fears of SARS and avian flu pandemics.

"We have learned important lessons from those challenges and must apply them in an effective ... manner to this situation," he said.

"It is important that our industry be vigilant about news activity and aggressively report the facts as the situation develops. As we reminded people during previous health scares, it's important to 'be prepared, but not panicked.' "

Mike Stauffer of the New Mexico Tourism Department said, "I think the Travel Association is trying to get a head start on the epidemic, so it doesn't end up being like the SARS thing a couple of years ago."

That scare caused some panicky travelers to cancel planned trips and stay at home.

Santa Fe resident Alice Sealey is directly affected by the swine flu outbreak. She has a house in Mexico and is scheduled to fly into Puerto Vallarta, which is half an hour from her house there, on May 8.

"I don't know whether I'll be able to go or not," Sealey said. "It depends on what happens in the course of next week. I'm not the type of person who freaks out, but if I flew in and couldn't fly back, that would not be good. I'm waiting to see what transpires."

The swine flu epidemic, she added, "could become a huge thing or it could be gotten under control in a week. It's best not to be panicked, but it's hard for me not to be able to get to my home."

Contact Bob Quick at 986-3011 or bobquick@sfnewmexican.com.