WASHINGTON – For nearly a decade, attendance has been flagging in America’s National Parks. But the Great Smoky Mountains have found ways to adapt in an economic landscape where self-promotion is necessary for survival.
Eight years ago, the number of visitors to parks nationwide dipped to 279 million after a three-year streak above 285 million. The park system as a whole saw fewer than 275 million visitors in both 2007 and 2008.
The parks are the focus of attention this week as Ken Burns’ much-awaited documentary series, “The National Parks: Americas Best Idea,” premieres on PBS.
Last year visitation fell at seven of the 10 parks profiled in the series.
While the numbers are especially grim at a few of the parks showcased in the film, such as Acadia National Park in Maine and the Everglades National Park in Florida, parks like the Great Smoky Mountains are telling a different story.
Data: National Park Service Public Use Statistics Office (Bridget Macdonald/MNS)
Annual visitation at the Smokies has dropped well below the record 10.3 million hit in 1999, but Cathy Cook, the park’s chief of resource education, said visitors have surpassed nine million for the past eight years, and that attendance at ranger-led programs was up 6 percent in August.
Nationwide problem, local solutions
Attending a speech given by Burns at the National Press Club in Washington Monday, the National Park Service’s acting director Dan Wenk said he hopes parks around the country will be able to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the series to generate more visitors.
“We are very much trying to take advantage of the opportunities that hopefully this film and other things will present us,” Wenk said.
He added that building partnerships, such as those with Burns and PBS, is crucial as the park service steps up efforts to reach a public it seems to have lost touch with.
Cradling the signature “Smokey the Bear” flat hat under his arm, Wenk said about seven or eight years ago, when attendance started to drop, the agency began to aggressively reexamine its “brand,” realizing: “We weren’t talking with one voice.”
In Tennessee, the Smokies has looked to its neighbors for advice on keeping its head above water despite being perennially among the top five parks in terms of visitation.
Since 2005, the park and the city of Gatlinburg have co-hosted the annual spring “Music of the Mountains” program, holding concerts of “old-time Appalachian music” at both the Sugarlands Visitor Center and Gatlinburg’s W. L. Mills Conference Center.
Cook said leading up to the park’s 75th anniversary this year, “We held a series of meetings, one in each of the six counties within the park, and invited business members and chambers of commerce and asked how to celebrate the anniversary event.”
All of the community events that were included in the celebration had to meet certain educational and environmental criteria, but the park has been eager to pursue relationships with local businesses. The relationship is both symbiotic, and strategic.
“Many of the local communities market the mountains,” said Cook, explaining that the park service has absolutely no marketing money. “We rely on our communities.”
The benefits of location
Walter Yeldell, tourism manager for the city of Gatlinburg, said while the presence of the park brings people to the region, not everyone comes to the region to visit the park. He pointed out that the area also boasts the “largest single paid attraction” in the area, Dollywood.
“I’d be hard-pressed to tell you how many people come to the Smokies without actually entering the National Park,” said Yeldell.
Although he said the park offers unique recreational opportunities, Yeldell said people who are not seeking out “natural” entertainment tend to overlook trailheads and ranger-guided activities.
“Our national park – and most, to the best of our knowledge – does absolutely nothing to promote visitation.”
But Cook said the park has pursued a variety of creative means to reach out to new audiences, such as working with researchers at both Clemson University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute to evaluate programs.
She said these assessments will help answer important questions: “How did people find out about attending programs? What are the barriers to attending? What is affective?”
Evaluations are a priority on the national level as well.
In May 2008, the National Park Foundation Second Century Commission was created to conduct a year-long analysis of the National Park Service. The final report was released Sept. 24, recommending that the agency enhance educational opportunities, community outreach and local partnerships as a way to boost the its public image.
The report also called for the creation of a board to raise funding ahead of the National Park Service’s centennial in 2016 to generate publicity for events across the country.
In the meantime, Wenk said the agency is laying the groundwork for change by evaluating the avenues through which parks reach out to visitors, particularly on the Internet.
The Smokies have taken the same initiative, according to Cook, who said, “Visitors are able to look online for program opportunities and we work with area media outlets on advertising.” Until 2003, most programs were only advertised within park newsletters distributed at visitor centers.
While input from the community is a step in the right direction, Cook acknowledged that paying attention to changing demographics “is the smartest thing for us to do.”
In addition to visually stunning imagery, the Burns’ series highlights a diversity of narratives within the history of the park service as a way to reach out to non-traditional park visitors, such as African Americans and Hispanics.
Cook said it is too soon to tell if the film’s message has had an impact on visitation, and is waiting to see if interest will carry over to next year.
“Especially because this year we did have a number of very significant anniversary events, the question is: Will that trend continue?” said Cook.