How much would you be OK with paying to visit national parks?/Canyonlands National Park vista, Rebecca Latson
How much is a national park visit worth to you? It's a question that floats to the surface from time to time when talk turns to the National Park Service's funding woes and nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog.
So, how much is too much? Instead of paying $25 or $30 per carload for a week in a park, would you be willing to pay, say, $25 or $35 per person in your car? Would you be OK with being charged a flat $100 per carload for seven days?
One-hundred-dollars per carload might seem expensive, but it also might still be a bargain, if you consider that in 1916 it cost $10 to enter Yellowstone National Park. If that $10 fee continued to rise annually with the rate of inflation, today the fee would be $244.
So, travelers, what maximum price would you place on visiting a national park? At what price point would you say, "Whoa, that's more than I can comfortably afford with my budget"?
Comments
I think the parks should be funded by tax dollars at an amount necessary for their protection and preservation. Anything above that that supports visitor activities should be collected at the gate or through concession fees. It would be interesting to see what that would come out to on a per person basis.
Assuming we're talking just about the big National Parks and not NRAs, NHPs etc, I'd go for $20 a person daily, $40 for a week, and an annual (one-park) pass of $100. No America the Beutiful pass, no discounts for military or seniors.
Since many national parks in locations on the East coast have no entrance fees, possibly a nominal fee at each one of these would help the funding problems which many of the large national parks have. As an example, the Smithsonian Institute museums does not charge an entrance fee. Yet as noted below the annual budget is 1.2 billion most of which is funded by federal appropriations. Have a nominal fee of $10 per person at each one of the locations such as the Smithsonian and Battle sites in the Eastern tere.
The Institution's 30 million annual visitors are admitted without charge. Its annual budget is around $1.2 billion, with two-thirds coming from annual federal appropriations. Other funding comes from the Institution's endowment, private and corporate contributions, membership dues, and earned retail, concession, and licensing revenue. Institution publications include the Smithsonian and Air and space magazines.
That's a huge assumption you're making. There certainly are countries where there's a differentiation in pricing depending on where one is from. I remember visiting China back when they still had "foreign exchange notes" that were legally the only means of exchanging foreign currency, although there was a black market for foreign currency where the rates were much better. A few times I legally got around it by buying in US dollars where the cashier just figured out what the underground exchange rate was. It's my understading that they basically never prosecuted locals for it. But visiting a park I recall the posted rates in foreign exchange currency was double that of regular money. We had some of the regular money (got it in change) and saved a bunch. Here's Komodo National Park in Indonesia, where the Indonesian citizen entrance fee is about 35 cents, while foreign visitors is about $10.50:
https://www.floreskomodoexpedition.com/komodo-national-park-entrance-fee
I certainly wouldn't want that to be the case in the United States, but there are always assorted resident/nonresident fees. We were talking about adding a fee to vehicle registration to fund California State Parks. If it passed, any state resident wouldn't need to pay a fee to get in or park. But it didn't and now residents or nonresidents pay the same fees and are eligible for the same passes. And resident status isn't dependent on citizenship.
Y_P_W - yes, countries that artificially manipulate their currencies will have non-market currency exchanges. When I went to the Soviet Union in 1971, the official conversion was 1 dollar for 1 ruble. The Russian on the street would give you 4 rubles - with the risk of both of you going to the Gulag. At the time they also had official government stores that only took foreign currency. A bottle of Vodka that cost 4 Rubles to the average Russian could be bought for 1 US dollar. Both Russia at the time- and China - are totaliarian countries. Travel today to a modernized country like England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan ...... you don't see a difference in pricing to see their sites. But I will admit, I have never been to Indonesia. Perhaps thats why.
I paid 80.00 for my annual park pass in March. This year I have been to Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Saguaro, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Great Basin, Capitol Reef, Montezuma's Well, Montezuma's Castle, Petrified Forrest, Grand Canyon, Walnut Canyon, Devil's Tower, Theodore Roosevelt, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Glacier, Craters of the Moon and Rocky Mountain. Before my pass expires I have plans to travel to the Gateway Arch, Indiana Dunes, Cuyahoga, Shanendoah and Smokey Mountians. Most people who purchase an annual park pass do not get out to as many parks as I make it to. They buy the pass to save a little money on the big 5 in Utah or doing a batch of parks in CA. So whats the balance? If you charge people more for the pass (which I am willing to pay), You will likely sell less passes. People will make other travel arrangements and not visit as many parks. I suggest doing what Mexico does. They charge one price for citizens and another price for visitors... to me this makes perfect sense. As you can tell from above... I get around to a lot of parks, my observations are the number of foreigners visting our park are substantial. If we made the park pass for residents of the US with a valid state ID 125.00 per year and made the foreign vistitor park pass 250.00 the parks could put a big dent in the deficit. Now onto daily rates. The per vehicle charge keeps things economical for families, which is wonderful. We should keep that rate... Usually around 25 dollars per vehicle. I suggest 25 dollars per vehicle with a valid state id and 50 dollars per vehicle for visitors. As an example a family traveling from Germany with two kids and two adults would pay 12.50 per person daily rate. A family of 4 from Arizona would pay 6.25 per person. Nothing is grossly unfair about what I am proposing. It was done to me when I went to Mexico and visited Chichen Itza, Coba, Tulum, and Ek Balam even their ecological theme parks of Xcaret and Xel-ha. I did not feel it was injust. I was going to their country to see their wonders. I feel this plan could give the parks the lift they need in the budget but also keep the costs affordable for US residents and foreign visitors.
We are loving our National Parks to death. Last week I visited Rocky Mountain National Park. A park that when I was a child was peaceful and quiet. Now it's over run with people parked on the sides of roads because someone spotted an elk laying in a meadow, even though there is no room to park, and people are walking in the road. Parking lots are filled to overflowing. People were climbing over the "Restoration in Progress-Keep Out" signs To scrabble up a hill that clearly was unstable. There's no way the Park Service can keep up With this sort of wear and tear on our National treasures. As much as it pains me to say it, because I don't think anyone should be denied the opportunity to see America the Beautiful, and it shouldn't be an economic hardship to do it, I think we're either going to have to charge $100.00 a week per car, $400.00 for an annual pass, or were going to have to start bussing people in, and supervising them and charging per person for the "tour".
it should definitely be more than it is. I think $150-$200 per car is good.