CANADENSIS — For a region so dependent on tourism, the headline could scarcely be worse: A survivalist charged with ambushing a Pennsylvania State Police barracks eludes hundreds of law enforcement officials pursuing him in the woods.

Yet tourism officials in the Pocono Mountains say that while visitors are calling to ask about the manhunt for Eric Frein — now in its third week — very few of them are canceling their hotel and outing reservations during one of the busiest times of the year.

“They think it’s off limits, it’s shut down,” said Elizabeth Richardson at the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau. “But it’s not. All of the hotels are open. All of the resorts are open.”

That’s because, while police are concentrating their search on a heavily wooded, 5-square-mile area around the village of Canadensis, the Poconos region of northeastern Pennsylvania encompasses 2,400 square miles where tourism is the No. 1 industry at $3 billion annually.

For most of the resorts, restaurants and attractions that rely tourism, it’s largely business as usual, Richardson said.

But it’s a different story in the tiny villages that make up Barrett Township, where Frein is believed to be hiding in the woods around his parents’ house. From the 10-room Brookview Manor Inn to Capri Pizza, business is down as tourists avoid the area and locals stay home.

The last busy night at Capri was Sept. 12 — the night police say Frein, 31, opened fire outside the Blooming Grove state police barracks, killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson and wounding a second trooper.

Several miles north of the search zone, regular visitors Tom and Lori Makalusky are undeterred. The couple rent a cabin at Promised Land State Park every fall.

They’ve been coming to these woods for decades and didn’t even think about staying away this year — even with Frein, whom police call armed and dangerous, still at large.

“He’s not going to ruin my life,” declared Lori Makalusky, a 64-year-old school nurse from Drums.