YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
A peer-reviewed report summarizing the results of Yellowstone’s 2018 Visitor Use Study was recently released online.
The National
Park Service contracted Otak Inc., RRC Associates and The University of Montana
Institute for Tourism Recreation Research to conduct the study to help better
understand how visitors experience the park in real time, across the summer
season, and across different parts of the park. More than 4,000 people
responded to the surveys, one of the largest in the history of the National
Park Service.
Yellowstone visitation has substantially increased over the past 10 years,
ranging from 3.2 million in 2009 to 4.2 in 2016, and 4.1 million in 2018. The
survey results provide a variety of park-wide and site-specific data that the
park plans to use to make decisions in upcoming years.
Survey results indicate that 85 percent of
respondents thought their experience in the park was good or excellent, with
the top three reasons for visiting being scenery, wildlife and thermal
features. Approximately 67 percent of the visitors participating in the survey
were first-time visitors to the park. Overall, 92 percent waited less than 10
minutes to enter the park and 86 percent waited less than 10 minutes to find
parking.
“This study gives us very actionable information on how we can better manage
and plan for increasing visitation in Yellowstone,” said Superintendent
Cameron Sholly. “I largely credit the National Park Service team and our
partners for the high visitor satisfaction levels. That said, there is no
question that increasing visitation levels are having higher impacts on
resources, our staff and infrastructure, and our gateway communities.”
While the 2016 Visitor Use Study surveyed people who visited in early
August after their departure from the park, the 2018 Visitor Use
Study used in-person interviews and GPS-based tablets to survey visitors
in real time as they traveled through the park. It was conducted during one
week of each month from May through September 2018.
Yellowstone is
focused to a great extent on constructing a visitor use strategy that
understands and responds to increased visitation in the following key areas: 1)
impacts on resource conditions; 2) impacts on staffing, operations and
infrastructure; 3) impacts on visitor service levels; and 4) impacts on gateway
communities and partners.
The park has and will continue to use a range of data, including this survey, to develop actions that improve performance in these four key areas.
Visit nps.gov/yell/learn/management/visitor-use-study-2018.htm to view the 2018 Visitor Use Survey results.
