| <No.419> |
| US National Park Attendance Declines |
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Would you like to visit
one of America's awe-inspiring national parks?
Yosemite in California, perhaps,
with its soaring cliffs and cascading waterfalls?
Or something warmer
as fall turns into winter
here in the northern hemisphere,
such as Florida's Everglades swamp
or a southern battlefield site from the U.S. Civil War?
You'll certainly be welcome,
because so far this year,
isitation to the nation's 395 national parks and historic sites is down
about five percent from last year,
when park attendance declined 7.5 percent
rom the year before.
National Park Service officials are a bit perplexed by this,
since park visitation usually rises
in tough economic times.
It's cheaper
than many other vacation options.
But the prolonged length of the economic downturn
and continued high gasoline prices
have taken their toll.
Don't forget,
a lot of visitors who stay in park campgrounds
arrive in large campers and recreational vehicles,
which are notorious gas guzzlers.
It has also been two years
since Ken Burns piqued interest in the national parks
ith an acclaimed documentary film
about their history and beauty.
And although there's no way to get an actual count,
anecdotally park rangers are reporting a considerable drop-off
in what is usually one of the strongest segments of park tourism:
visitors from Europe,
where the strength of the euro against the dollar
had made trips to the United States a bargain.
But the euro's value has fallen vis-?-vis the dollar,
and combined with the instability of several economies on the continent,
it's thought that lots of European families
that might have checked out the misty hollows
of the Great Smoky Mountains
or the flaming sunsets over the Grand Canyon
stayed closer to home this year.
I’m Ted Landphair.
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