Part
01
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Part
01
US National Park Visitor Demographics & Psychographics
Studies commissioned by the National Park Service suggest that most of the United States's national park visitors are in the 35-54 age range, non-Hispanic, and white. They travel with family, belong to households with income ranging from $35,000 to $74,999, and have either a bachelor's degree or a graduate degree. The activities they are most interested in are day hiking, sightseeing, visiting the audiovisual or visitor center, and water activities, while the top reasons they visit national parks are to experience the national parks, see other attractions in the area, visit friends or relatives in the area, and attend to business. Visitors are almost equally split between men and women.
METHODOLOGY
Since the National Park Service (NPS) is the government agency responsible for preserving the National Park System of the United States, our first strategy involved scouring the website of the NPS for demographic and psychographic information on national park visitors. Several national park visitor studies were published in the past as part of the agency's Visitor Services Project, but nearly all these studies were conducted on a per-national-park basis. The only visitor study that we found, whose sample was representative of the visitors of the whole National Park System, was a study published in 2014. As it was infeasible for us to look at each of the country's national parks, we focused on the national parks with the highest number of visitors. According to the NPS, the national parks in the country with the highest number of visitors in 2018 were Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Zion National Park, Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, Acadia National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Olympic National Park, and Glacier National Park.
Checking if these national parks have visitor studies in the public domain, we found that eight out of these ten national parks do have them. In the public domain, there are visitor studies specific to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Zion National Park, Yosemite National Park, Acadia National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and Olympic National Park, but unfortunately, they were all published several years ago. We typically use recently published information, released no more than two years ago, but the authoritativeness of these studies prompted us to include them in this brief. The studies, after all, were commissioned by the NPS, the most credible source of information on the country's national parks. They also provide the needed demographic and psychographic information.
To determine if up-to-date information is truly unavailable, we proceeded to search beyond the NPS. Our review of recently published reports, studies, and surveys on national parks and their visitors revealed that only a few relevant materials have been published recently and these materials cover only a segment of the country's national park visitor population. For example, a related thesis published by the University of Southern Mississippi in 2017 covers only the country's millennial population. The other recently published materials that we found were a family travel survey, a report on reconnecting Americans with nature, a study covering campsite reservations in national parks, a paper discussing the constraints that people of color face when it comes to visiting national parks, and a study covering backcountry campers at Yellowstone National Park.
Our attempt to use tools that analyze traffic or followers, such as SimilarWeb and Followerwonk, proved futile as the results did not appear reliable. Also, it does not seem wise to assume that the profile of social media followers or website visitors is indicative of the profile of the people who actually visit the national parks. People who visit the NPS website or follow a national park's Twitter account, for example, are not necessarily the same people who visit national parks. As a result, we decided to use the aforementioned visitor studies in answering this request and to supplement them with information from the recently published but less relevant sources that we found. Given that the National Park Service has not commissioned more recent visitor studies, we assume that the results of these studies more or less remain true up to this day.
DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE
During the period 2001-2011, the period when 128 Visitor Services Project studies were conducted by the NPS, the following demographic characteristics were observed:
AGE
- Twenty-seven percent of national park visitors were in the 45-54 age range.
- Twenty-three percent of national park visitors were in the 55-64 age range.
- Twenty-one percent of national park visitors were in the 35-44 age range.
- Fifteen percent of national park visitors were over 65.
- Twelve percent of national park visitors were in the 25-34 age range.
- Four percent of national park visitors were in the 18-24 age range.
GENDER
- Fifty-three percent of Rocky Mountain National Park visitors were male, while 47% were female.
- Fifty-two percent of Olympic National Park visitors were female, while 48% were male.
ETHNICITY
- Ninety-three percent of national park visitors were not Hispanic.
- Seven percent of national park visitors were Hispanic.
RACE
- Ninety-five percent of national park visitors were white.
- Two percent of national park visitors were Alaska Native or American Indian.
- Two percent of national park visitors were Asian.
- One percent of national park visitors were Black or African American.
- Less than one percent of national park visitors were Native Hawaiian or some other Pacific Islander.
HOUSEHOLD INCOME
- Twenty-four percent of national park visitors belonged to households with income ranging from $50,000 to $74,999.
- Nineteen percent of national park visitors belonged to households with income ranging from $75,000 to $99,999.
- Nineteen percent of national park visitors belonged to households with income ranging from $100,000 to $149,999.
- Eleven percent of national park visitors belonged to households with income ranging from $35,000 to $49,999.
- Seven percent of national park visitors belonged to households with income ranging from $150,000 to $199,999.
- Seven percent of national park visitors belonged to households with income ranging from $25,000 to $34,999.
- Six percent of national park visitors belonged to households with income of $200,000 or more.
- Six percent of national park visitors belonged to households with income of less than $24,999.
EDUCATION
- Thirty-two percent of national park visitors had at most a bachelor's degree.
- Twenty-four percent of national park visitors had some college education.
- Eleven percent of national park visitors had at most a high school diploma or a general education diploma.
- Two percent had some high school education.
GROUP SIZE AND TYPE
- Thirty-seven percent of Acadia National Park visitors were in groups of two, 22% were in groups of four, 17% were in groups of six or more, 11% were in groups of three, 10% were in groups of five, and 3% were alone.
- Seventy-three percent of Acadia National Park visitors were with family, 14% were with family and friends, 9% were with friends, 4% were alone, and less than 1% were with others.
- Fifty-nine percent of Zion National Park fall visitors were in groups of two, 11% were alone, 10% were in groups of five or more, 10% were in groups of four, and 10% were in groups of three.
- Thirty-seven percent of Zion National Park summer visitors were in groups of two, 25% were in groups of four, 23% were in groups of five or more, 12% were in groups of three, and 2% were alone.
- Sixty percent of Zion National Park fall visitors were with family, 17% were with friends, 11% were alone, 7% were with others, and 5% were with family and friends.
- Seventy-four percent of Zion National park summer visitors were with family, 11% were with friends, 8% were with family and friends, 4% were with others, and 2% were alone.
These observations appear to remain true to this day, as a thesis published by The University of Southern Mississippi indicates that most national park visitors are "older and white." A paper published in 2018 also indicates that "people of color visit national parks far less than whites." Moreover, a report published in 2018 also shows that "higher-income individuals tend to camp in national parks with greater frequency."
PSYCHOGRAPHIC PROFILE
During the period 2001-2011, the period when 128 Visitor Services Project studies were conducted by the NPS, the following demographic characteristics were observed:
INTERESTS
- The top five activities local national park visitors participated in were day hiking (51%), sightseeing (48%), visiting the audiovisual or visitor center (40%), water activities (33%), and bicycling (22%).
- The top five activities non-local national park visitors participated in were sightseeing (79%), visiting the audiovisual or visitor center (55%), day hiking (54%), creative arts (43%), and water activities (37%).
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
- The top five sources of information of local national park visitors were previous visit or experience (70%), word of mouth (43%), NPS park brochure or map (19%), newspaper or magazine articles (17%), and NPS website (16%).
- The top five sources of information of non-local national park visitors were previous visit or experience (42%), word of mouth (41%), NPS park brochure or map (37%), travel guide or tour book (33%), and NPS website (30%).
MOTIVATIONS
- The top five primary reasons people visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park were to view the mountain scenery (35%), visit the national park (34%), visit other attractions in the area (10%), participate in area recreation (7%), and visit friends or relatives in the area (3%).
- The top four primary reasons people visited Grand Canyon National Park were to visit the national park (73%), visit other attractions in the area (11%), visit friends or relatives in the area (9%), and attend to business or other reasons (7%).
- The top five primary reasons people visited Rocky Mountain National Park were to visit the national park (73%), visit other attractions in the area (8%), visit friends or relatives in the area (7%), travel through (2%), and attend to business (2%).
- The top five primary reasons people visited Yosemite National Park were to visit the national park (79%), travel through (7%), visit other attractions in the area (5%), visit friends or relatives in the area (4%), and attend to business (1%).
- The top four primary reasons people visited Grand Teton National Park were to visit Yellowstone National Park (48%), visit Grand Teton National Park (28%), visit other attractions in the area (12%), and attend to business (3%).
- The top four primary reasons people visited Olympic National Park were to visit the national park (78%), visit other attractions in the area (9%), visit friends or relatives in the area (9%), and attend to business or other reasons (4%).