Grand Canyon National Park socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2016

Resource Systems Group (RSG)

• This report describes the results of a visitor study at Grand Canyon National Park (NP) conducted from July 15 through July 24, 2016. During the sampling period, 1,351 visitor groups were contacted to participate in the survey. Of those groups, 974 agreed to participate in the study by accepting a mail-back survey packet. Questionnaires were completed and returned by 533 visitor groups, resulting in a completion rate of 55% among those visitor groups that agreed to participate in the study and an overall response rate of 40% for the study. • This report profiles a systematic random sample of Grand Canyon NP visitors. Most of the results are presented in graphs and frequency tables. Summaries of visitor comments are included in the body of the report. Verbatim comments are included in the Visitor Comment Appendix (bound separately). • Thirty-seven percent of visitor groups were groups of two, and 24% of visitor groups were groups of four. The majority of visitor groups (76%) identified as groups of family. • Twelve percent of visitors were 65 years old or older, 13% of visitors were 55 to 64 years old, 32% of visitor were 35 to 54 years old, 23% of visitors were 18 to 34 years old, and 20% of visitors were under 18 years old. • Hispanic or Latino visitors comprised 7% of visitation during the survey period. Most visitors (90%) were white. Few visitors were Asian (6%), Black or African American (2%), American Indian or Alaska Native (1%), or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (<1%). • Nearly all visitor groups preferred to speak (96%) and read (96%) English when visiting an area such as Grand Canyon NP. • Individuals from the United States comprised 69% of total visitation during the survey period. At the state level, 13% of visitors were from California, 13% of visitors were from Arizona, and smaller proportions of visitors were from 40 other states. International visitors comprised 31% of total visitation with 15% of international visitors from The Netherlands, 13% from the France, 13% from Germany, and smaller proportions of visitors from 25 other countries. • Ninety-four percent of visitors indicated having visited the park only once during the last 12 months, while 6% had visited more than two times during the past year. Twenty-four percent of visitors indicated that they had not visited another National Park Service (NPS) site within the past 12 months. Twenty-four percent of visitors indicated that they had visited another NPS site 5 times or more in the past 12 months. • Ninety-three percent of visitor groups obtained information about Grand Canyon NP prior to this trip. The most commonly reported information sources used were the park website (56%), friends/relatives/word of mouth (42%), previous visits (34%), and maps/brochures (32%). The vast majority (93%) of visitor groups had the information they needed about Grand Canyon NP for their trip. • Ninety-one percent of visitor groups used a car, truck, or SUV to get from their home to the park. Twenty-nine percent of visitor groups spent up 7 to 12 hours traveling from their home to the park. Twenty-five percent of visitor groups traveled up to 500 miles one-way from their home to get to Grand Canyon NP while 24% traveled 2,501 or more miles one-way to get to the park. • Seventy-seven percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting Grand Canyon NP was one of several equally important destinations on their trip away from home. Twenty percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting Grand Canyon NP was the primary or sole purpose of their trip away from home. • The most important reasons for visitors to visit Grand Canyon NP included to view wildlife or natural scenery (56% of visitor groups), to spend time with friends/family (21% of visitor groups), and to visit an NPS site (10% of visitor groups). Forty-four percent of visitor groups reported that viewing wildlife, natural features, scenery, wildflowers, or other aspects of natural scenery.

Grand Canyon National Park socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2016

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