The first U.S. outbreak of the Zika virus is in a trendy Miami neighborhood and that's no coincidence, experts say.

This week officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued warnings advising people to steer clear of the Wynwood Arts District, a popular area in Miami that is the nation’s first Zika virus hotspot with 14 people infected by local mosquitoes.

Wynwood has become known worldwide as a popular destination for tourists and locals, who spend hours strolling by attractions like the Wynwood Walls, known for its outdoor art, and linger in the many outdoor restaurants and cafes.

But the same features that draw people to Wynwood also make it irresistible to mosquitoes, say University of Miami researchers, who recently published a study on the topic.

The model presented in the study focuses on two potential mechanisms for infection; one mechanism is person-to-person infection, which is when an uninfected mosquito bites an infected person and then carries and spreads the disease to other people. Broadcast, the second mechanism, refers to infection from infected mosquitoes in an actual place.

"One would think the best strategy would be to reduce the flow of people through the Wynwood neighborhood so it is effectively under quarantine,"says Pedro Johnson, lead author of the study.. "But obviously, this is completely impractical. The question then shifts to: How should we control the flow of people through the popular place so that we keep relatively high occupancy, and yet the risk of spread is minimal?”

According to the study, to maintain high occupancy of a popular place, such as Wynwood, it comes down to the rate at which people flow through the area (the mobility) compared to the rate of infection, or the rate at which the disease is transmitted from an infected person to an uninfected person.

The study presents two distinct strategies that can reduce the outbreak severity. The first is to decreasing the number of people there, but this would also allow for those present to spend more time. The second would be to increase the number of people there, but move visitors  through more quickly, with less opportunity to be infected.

This second scenario, while counterintuitive, could be the best strategy for reducing the risk of Zika infection in Wynwood, the researchers who reported their findings in Europhysics Letters.