So many meetings and conventions are being canceled that the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association has stopped keeping track. The streets of Nogales, Ariz., often filled with Mexican shoppers, were so empty during a recent boycott that stores closed early. And Mr. Hook of the Adobe Rose knows of at least one family that canceled its reservations because of the law – taking a trip to Boston instead.

In the long term, such boycotts “tend to essentially blow over, either because the issue was settled or people just forget about it,” says Elliott Pollack, president of Elliott D. Pollack & Co., a real estate and economic consulting firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“In other words, the effect will be in the near term,” says Mr. Pollack.

But with the state only now recovering from one of the most severe recessions in its history, those near-term impacts are being felt.