Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Overnight stays in the concession lodges of the parks totaled 3.4 million, while campgrounds saw
over 3.2 million overnight guests in 2009. Another 1.3 million stayed in a concession campground, and
2.1 million were RV campers. Another 1.8 million visitors spent the night in a park backcountry site that
they hiked into. Most park visitors stay in facilities in ''gateway communities'' outside park boundaries
or are simply day users. 2
The most popular parks continue to experience a crowded peak summer season. In contrast, the
spring and fall are excellent times to visit the well-known areas, and there are a great many units of the
National Park System that are still underutilized. See the section titled
''
Matching Supply with
Demand
in Chapter 12.
Visitors to NPS areas have a large economic impact on the surrounding communities with
estimated direct sales in 2009 of $11.89 billion. An additional $3.69 billion was generated indirectly
from tourism expenditures, for a total economic impact of $15.58 billion. This spending by NPS visitors
helped generate over 247,000 jobs. 3
The National Park Service publishes information on visits to national park areas in its annual report,
National Park Statistical Abstract. It also publishes biannually The National Parks Index, which contains
brief descriptions, with acreages, of each area administered by the NPS.
In the United States, many individual states operate park systems, some of the most outstanding
being in New York, California, Tennessee, Oregon, Indiana, Kentucky, Florida, and Michigan. The
National Association of State Park Directors (NASPD) compiles statistics for state parks. There are
6,624 state parks totaling over 13 million acres and 5,875 trails encompassing over 41,725 miles of
trails. State parks received over 725 million visitors with 91.5 percent being daytime users. The parks
employ 20,603 full-time personnel and 53,898 total personnel, including part-time and seasonal staff.
Visit www.naspd.org .
Parks are also operated by other units of government, such as county or park districts like the
Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority of the greater Detroit area in southeastern Michigan. This
system has six parks within easy access of residents of the Detroit metropolitan area. Counties,
townships, and cities also operate parks and often campgrounds as parts of parks.
''
'' Horseback riding in the Adirondacks.'' The relaxed smiles on this couple convey a feeling of
enjoyment from the very special experience. Although not everyone enjoys this form of recreation,
those who do get a view of the countryside available to few others. PhotocourtesyofTheAdirondack
RegionalTourismCouncil.
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