For many people, National Parks are an escape from the every-day world. When we want fresh air or a little bit of downtime away from the day-to-day bustle, we think of the areas we have conserved! Thankfully, the United States has more than 419 national parks, which sit on more than 84 million acres of land.

National Park Tourism

We visit National Parks so much. There were an estimated 318.2 million recreational visitors in the National Park Service during 2018. This was the fourth consecutive year that we had over 300 million recreational visits in the year. While our 2018 numbers were down from 2017, we still reached the third-highest amount of visitors since we started keeping track – which was in 1904! Not all visits are treated equally across the parks, however. There are 28 parks that set new records for annual visits. Just 3 parks received more than 10 million visits in the year.

What parks get the most visitors?

Great Smoky Mountains – 11,421,200 visitors
Grand Canyon – 6,380,495 visitors
Rocky Mountains – 4,509,495 visitors
Zion – 4,320,033 visitors
Yellowstone – 4,115,000 visitors
Yosemite – 4,009,436 visitors
Acadia – 5,537,575 visitors
Grand Teton – 3,491,151 visitors
Olympic – 3,104,455 visitors
Glacier – 2,965,309 visitors

The Positives to National Park Visitation

Besides having more and more people out and enjoying nature, our national parks also help to stimulate our economy! Across all national parks, visitors have spent an estimated $20.2 billion in local regions, stemming from areas like lodging to the restaurant sector. This money does a lot of different things, one of which is to help to create jobs – over 300,000! This means that economic stimulation in national parks contributes $13.6 billion in labor income.

What do national parks do for TN?

Great Smoky Mountains image from the National Park Service

Thanks to the Great Smoky Mountains and their place as the most visited national park we see massive benefits! Tennessee is actually the 11th most spent-in state when it comes to national park visitors. Visitors spend about $653 million annually with the biggest benefit being seen by the hotel industry. As a result of GSMNPvisitation, we see over 8,000 jobs in the hotel industry and the spending at $205 million.

The Negatives of National Park Visitation

It’s hard to imagine that people going into nature would cause any sort of negative repercussions but, alas, there are some struggles.

It mostly stems from just how popular our parks are! We have so successfully marketed our parks that they are facing a “crisis of popularity.” This is from both domestic and international visitors!

The infrastructure of our national parks is really old. Quite a bit dates back all the way to the 50s and 60s, which was when an $11 billion initiative was undertaken. As it currently stands, the backlogs for maintenance and upgrades – for things like roads and buildings – is at more than $11 billion. What this all boils down to is just the fact that our national parks have more visitors than they have resources and, as the number of visitors increases, this problem is less and less likely to go away on its own.

Image of Yellowstone traffic from the National Park Service

One of the most apparent consequences of higher visitation rates can be seen in traffic congestion. During peak months, some parks see tens of thousands of cars every day. In Yosemite, for instance, visitors are often faced with a 2-3 hour delay just to get into the park when visiting in the summer. This is especially troubling because this is after Yosemite developed a shuttle program to address traffic problems!

Even though we see more visitors, we haven’t seen the same rise in staff. This has to do with the budget and resource limitations as mentioned previously. Rangers, as a result, often feel overwhelmed! This makes sense when we stop to consider that we have seen a 90% increase in car accidents, a 60% increase in calls for ambulances, and a 130% increase in searches and rescues in some parks.

The cost of resources also extends beyond rangers and building/road upgrades to some costs we might not think of – like toilet paper. In the Rocky Mountains National Park (Colorado), more than 1,800 miles of toilet paper are used every year! Similarly, Yellowstone has spent almost $30k on hand sanitizer for just a single summer!

There’s also Ecological Damage

As one might guess, so many people can do damage to the conserved areas from sheer volume. For instance, to accommodate the number of guests, we have to have places for them to park their vehicles, which creates a greater need for parking lots, which potentially strips away natural areas that were otherwise untouched. Due to overwhelmed trails, we’re also seeing an influx of people going off-trail – something that should not happen for ecological reasons but also for safety!

All of this can create a lessened experience for visitors! After all, nothing takes away from a much-needed nature escape like waiting for three hours just to get out on the trails!

What is the National Park Service doing to mitigate these problems?

Keeping in mind the budget constraints and governmental hurdles the parks may face, the parks are making some difficult decisions to handle these issues. The National Park Service (NPS) implemented a Green Parks Plan, which features long-term strategic plans for sustainable management of the parks. For specifics on the Green Parks Plan, check out the NPS website here!

Alternatively, some parks are considering limiting visitation. Some state parks already practice this, with one example being Paria Canyon in Utah which limits overnight passes to just 20 visitors. National Parks, like Arches National Park (also in Utah!), are thinking of enacting similar practices so that visitors would be able to get the most from their visit while also allowing for better resource management. For Arches, the proposed plan limits visitation to 2,600 cars during March and October, but only from 7am-6pm. While this might sound drastic, the park would actually only have to turn away 3.2% of visitors!

Volunteers are hugely beneficial to the parks! If you love the national parks and want to do more to keep them afloat, there are a plethora of volunteer opportunities. You can check out what these might be here. Volunteering in the parks is not without rewards! The NPS incentivizes long-term volunteer engagement by offering a free 12-month National Park Pass for volunteers who hit 250 hours!

And, of course, if you head to the national parks for a much needed escape or adventure, be sure to pack in what you unpack. Do your best to leave no trace so that these conserved areas can continue to provide the most for the most people! Additionally, you can donate financially directly to the National Parks. For specifics on donations, check out the official National Park Donation Page here.

National Parks + National Tourism Day