Visitor satisfaction and visitor understanding of the significance of Acadia National Park: 2013

Jacobi, Charles

From summary: "The response rate for the visitor survey card in 2013, our third year with lock boxes and on site surveys, was 99%. We surpassed the GPRA satisfaction goal for the overall quality of visitor facilities, services, and recreation opportunities (92%) with a measure o/99%. The combined evaluation criteria scores for park facilities, services, and recreation opportunities respectively were all 94% or higher. In 2013, visitor satisfaction with restrooms and commercial services had the lowest overall evaluation scores (4.3 and 4.4 on a scale of 1 to 5 respectively). Their associated satisfaction measures (good and very good combined) were 87% for rest rooms and 90% for commercial services. We have been above 80% for rest rooms since 2005; before 2005 we were frequently below 80%. All other individual measures for various facilities, services, and recreation opportunities were at 4.5 or above, and all of these had a 90% or greater satisfaction measure. We met the GPRA significance goal (87%) with a measure o/92%. In 2013, fifty-nine percent of visitors knew Acadia was significant for its scenery and 29% percent knew it was significant for its recreation opportunities. Seventeen percent of visitors knew Acadia was significant for its cultural heritage and 20% knew it was significant for its natural resources. Fifteen years of data consistently show that visitors most often recognize Acadia is significant for its scenery (mean= 72%), followed by recognition of its recreation opportunities (mean= 33%). Recognition of the park's cultural heritage and natural resources is much less common, though much improved over 1998, with means of 15% each. It appears that visitors completing the survey cards on site are in more of a hurry and spend less time on the Significance question. Overall, the answers are less thoughtful and less memorable. The tradeoff is a high response rate, which makes the survey card evaluation results much more reliable. Finally, Acadia is 'great' (mentioned 44 times in all comments), 'loved' (32), 'wonderful' (18), a 'treasure' (9), 'amazing' (8), good for children and families (7), important for 'future generations' (5), 'awesome' (5), 'clean' (4), 'breathtaking' (2), 'fabulous' (2), 'gorgeous' (2), and 'fantastic' (once)."

Visitor satisfaction and visitor understanding of the significance of Acadia National Park: 2013

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