Community News

Grand Canyon Chamber - Special Update NPS Fee Update Questions Answered

November 20, 2017

 

Message From The General Manager

Laura Chastain

I wanted to take a moment to share some questions I had answered by Donald Leadbetter:

 

1) Does NPS have avg length of visits for each of the 17 parks with proposed fee changes? Have you consider length of visit with the proposed fees?
The National Park Service considered a variety of data points in the analysis of the proposed changes, including length of visit, party size, and other available data.

2) Was there a study/examination of how the fee increases could impact overall visitation for the parks? Can we see that data?
Because the National Park Service has never implemented a peak season entry fee, there is no existing data on which to base a forecast. However, past comparisons of entry fees and visitation volume show little-to-no correlation.

3) Currently 80% of entrance fees collected at the park stay at the park - we feel the proposed fees will push more annual passes - how are those fees divided among the parks?
Revenue from the sales of annual passes is treated similarly to entry fee revenue, with the majority staying the park and used for facility maintenance, improving the visitor experience, etc.

4)Pg 3 of the CUA proposal talks about Entrance Group 1 to 4 – how are those groups assigned? Which group is the Grand Canyon in?
Please see the attached spreadsheet, also available on the PEPC site, for the composition of the entrance groups. Assignment is based on several factors, including the establishing legislation for the park, its category of designation (national park, national monument, national historic site, etc.), and the size of the park. Grand Canyon National Park is in category/tier four.

 

Chamber Members:

We are closing in on the public comment period for the proposed fee changes for both individual visitors and CUA (Commercial Use Authorization) and I am hoping all of you have had a chance to review the proposed changes.

 

The Chamber is preparing our comments but we would like to be able to include feedback from you as well.  Please consider completed a quick  Google Survey by Friday Nov 17th for us - so we can finalize our comments which are due November 23rd.

 

Here are the links of proposed changes for your review: 

 

Public comments on the proposed seasonal entry fees for visitors will be accepted October 24, 2017 to November 23, 2017 on the NPS Planning, Environment, and Public Comment (PEPC) website at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/proposedpeakseasonfeerates.

 

Public comments on the proposed CUA requirements, CUA fees, and commercial entrance fees will be accepted October 24, 2017 to November 23, 2017 on the NPS PEPC website at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/commercialtourrequirements.

 

Written comments for both proposals may be mailed to: National Park Service, Recreation Fee Program, 1849 C Street NW, Mail Stop 2346, Washington, DC 20240