Vacationing a No-No in Bear-Killing Bavaria

Bruno, the brown bear that continues to captivate the nation's attention after his death, can rest assured that his human supporters are not just paying lip service to wildlife protection. Such is the outrage following Bavaria's state-sanctioned shooting of Bruno last Monday that many tourists are cancelling their plans to visit the region.

"Vacation in Bavaria? No way!" reads an entry in an online guestbook for the area of Bayrischzell, where Bruno the "problem bear" was finally downed after eluding a special team of Finnish bear hunters for over two weeks. "We don't want to holiday among murderers. We're leaving -- and never coming back!"

The neighboring Schliersee district has also been affected by the public outcry, with 35 cancellations registered by Friday, according to a tourism representative.

Other voices in the online forum called for cooler heads.

"What can the community of Schliersee do about the fact that JJ1 (Bruno's official name) was shot?" one user wrote, urging tourists to continue to come to Bavaria.

Community officials say they'll only be able to assess the economic damage to the region arising from Bruno's death in a year's time, when hotels have their final count of overnight stays.