Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2016

Resource Systems Group (RSG)

• This report describes the results of a visitor study at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park (NHP) conducted from August 12 through August 21, 2016. During the sampling period, 1,086 visitor groups were contacted to participate in the survey. Of those groups, 876 agreed to participate in the study by accepting a mail-back survey packet. Questionnaires were completed and returned by 414 visitor groups, resulting in a completion rate of 47% among those visitor groups that agreed to participate in the study and an overall response rate of 38% for the study. • This report profiles a systematic random sample of Klondike Gold Rush NHP 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). • Fifty-eight percent of visitor groups were groups of two, and 40% of visitor groups were groups of three or more members. Over half of visitor groups (61%) identified as groups of family. • Thirty-four percent of visitors were 65 years old or older, 29% of visitors were 55 to 64 years old, 20% of visitor were 35 to 54 years old, 8% of visitors were 20 to 34 years old, and 8% of visitors were under 19 years old. • Hispanic or Latino visitors comprised 4% of visitation during the survey period. Most visitors (90%) were white. Fewer visitors were Asian (8%), Black or African American (1%), American Indian or Alaska Native (<1%), or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (<1%). • Nearly all visitor groups preferred to speak (97%) and read (97%) English when visiting an area such as Klondike Gold Rush NHP. • Individuals from the United States comprised 78% of total visitation during the survey period. At the state level, 16% of visitors were from California, and smaller proportions of visitors were from 46 other states. International visitors comprised 21% of total visitation with 47% of international visitors from Canada and smaller proportions of visitors from 13 other countries. • Ninety-nine percent of visitors indicated having visited the park only once during the last 12 months. Twenty-eight percent of visitors indicated that they had not visited another National Park Service (NPS) site within the past 12 months, while 23% had visited one other NPS site. • Fifty-nine percent of visitor groups obtained information about Klondike Gold Rush NHP prior to this trip. The most commonly reported information sources used were travel guides/tour books (25%), maps/brochures (14%), and friends/relatives/word of mouth (14%). The majority (87%) of visitor groups had the information they needed about Klondike Gold Rush NHP for their trip. • Ninety percent of visitor groups used water-based transportation to get from their home to the park. Sixty percent of visitor groups spent 25 or more hours traveling from their home to the park. Thirty-eight percent of visitor groups traveled 3,001 or more miles from their home to get to the park. • Eighty-three percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting Klondike Gold Rush NHP was one of several equally important destinations on their trip away from home. Eleven percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting Klondike Gold Rush NHP was an incidental or spur of the moment stop. • The most important reasons for visitors to visit Klondike Gold Rush NHP included to view wildlife or natural scenery (32% of visitor groups), to learn more about American history/culture (28% of visitor groups), and to spend time with friends/family (15% of visitor groups). Twenty-seven percent of visitor groups reported that viewing wildlife, natural features, scenery, wildflowers, or other aspects of natural scenery was their primary activity. Twenty-one percent reported that visiting a cultural or historic site was their primary activity. Nineteen percent of visitor groups reported having no primary activity.

Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2016

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