Big spike in NP traffic

[ERIC]

[Wandering Daisy]

By "traffic" do they mean auto traffic or just the number of people visiting?

I have noticed a LOT more foreign tourists, particularly busloads of from China and other Asian countries. I also noticed this up in Canada. I think there are more tour companies that are operating now than before. The increased cost of getting into the parks does not matter, because it is a minor cost compared the entire tour. Also, the Ken Burns series on national parks, and the 100 year anniversary. It all adds up to more visitors. However, if you are talking about auto traffic, these large tour groups come on busses, and then use the shuttles to get around, so are not greatly adding to the traffic jams. I did notice that getting on a shuttle bus is no longer a given thing- they get full fast. I ended up walking places and gave up on trying to get on the shuttles.

My guess as to the crowds in Yosemite last weekend, I would guess over 50% are from other countries. I also noticed a lot of school groups. This is the year that 4th graders get in free.

[ERIC]

Visitors.

[ERIC]

One of the responses on Twitter was a suggestion to see if there's any correlation with inflation adjusted fuel prices.

[Wandering Daisy]

I do not think fuel prices would be a big factor. The incremental added cost is minor compared to your entire trip. Perhaps, coming out of the economic downturn in 2008 is more of a factor.

[ERIC]

It's not minor if you're traveling a long distance, which a lot of people do. Road travel family vacations go way down when fuel prices are high.

I had the same thought about the recession. Seems logical. But I think it's more likely the result of a combination of factors.

[sambieni]

A quick google on fuel prices and NPS visits pulled this report up. I did not read it in its entirety, but its based on data from 1993-2010. The front page abstract cites fuel prices as most significant impact on visitor decline:

"Visitation to the major nature-based national parks has been declining. This paper specifies an
econometric model that estimates the relative impact of consumer incomes, travel costs, entry
fees and other factors on per capita attendance from 1993 to 2010. Results suggest that entrance
fees have had a statistically significant but small impact on per capita attendance. Increasing fuel
prices (travel costs) relative to income has had a more significant effect suggesting that park policies
reducing the cost of attendance may be desirable.'

http://www.nrpa.org/globalassets/journa ... 53-164.pdf

[Wandering Daisy]

You can see on the chart that not all parks are the same. Mesa Verde has not changed much. My daughter lives in Durango, near Mesa Verde. I doubt this park, is a major destination, like Yosemite or Grand Canyon. Most visitors combine it with an auto tour of other surrounding parks, like Arches, Escalante, and Zion. I wonder why they did not put Yellowstone and Grand Teton on the chart.

"Travel costs" also include motels for a lot of people. Motels and eating out probably exceed gas costs. Gas costs the last few years have actually been quite low, not enough difference to explain the most recent spike. I think a lot of families have national park visits on their lifelong list of places to go. Something then pushes them to do it a particular year- publicity for whatever reason may be the deciding factor. I would think the most recent big spike is due to the national park anniversary celebrations and publicity surrounding that.

[simonov]

I have noticed a LOT more foreign tourists, particularly busloads of from China and other Asian countries. I also noticed this up in Canada. I think there are more tour companies that are operating now than before.

We are experiencing what, for example, world class cities like Paris and London have been experiencing: more people than ever before have the money and ability to travel for vacations. A very large percentage of the foreign tourists we are seeing, from places like China and former Warsaw Pact countries, are doing something their parents could never have dreamed of: traveling to the US for a holiday. There are huge numbers of new tourist populations that simply did not exist as recently as 20 years ago.

I lived in London in the early 1990s and spent a lot of time in Paris. You never had anything like the crowds in those cities back then than you have now. It's very fortunate for the people from China, Eastern Europe, etc, who now get to travel the world in a way we Americans took for granted for generations, but the popular tourist destinations of the world (including American National Parks) will never be the same.

My next visit to Paris will be in the winter. The weather is filthy and the trees are bare, but at least you have the city to yourself.

[gdurkee]

I agree with people who think it's a huge increase in foreign visitors. Just taking a walk on the common day trails in Yosemite -- English is the minority language much of the time. To a certain extent, the same is happening on the JMT and PCT. Two of the hikers who died in the last few weeks doing the PCT were from China and Japan. Another I've been following for her good description of trail conditions is from Holland.