San Antonio Missions National Historical Park socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2016

Resource Systems Group (RSG)

• This report describes the results of a visitor study at San Antonio Missions National Historical Park (NHP) conducted from June 3 – 12, 2016. During the sampling period, 765 visitor groups were contacted to participate in the survey. Of those groups, 670 agreed to participate in the study by accepting a mail-back survey packet. Questionnaires were completed and returned by 294 visitor groups, resulting in a completion rate of 44% 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 sample of San Antonio Missions 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). • Forty-five percent of visitor groups were groups of two, and 34% of visitor groups were groups of three or more members. Over half of visitor groups (57%) identified as groups of family. • Fifteen percent of visitors were 65 years old or older, 18% of visitors were 55 to 64 years old, 35% of visitor were 35 to 54 years old, 14% of visitors were 18 to 34 years old, and 18% of visitors were under 18 years old. • Hispanic or Latino visitors comprised 23% of visitation during the survey period. Most visitors (91%) were white. Few visitors were Asian (5%), American Indian or Alaska Native (2%), black or African American (1%), or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (<1%). • Nearly all visitor groups preferred to speak (97%) and read (98%) English when visiting an area such as San Antonio Missions NHP. • Individuals from the United States comprised 95% of total visitation during the survey period. At the state level, 59% of visitors were from Texas, 4% of visitors were from Florida, 4% were from Pennsylvania, and smaller proportions of visitors were from 35 other states. International visitors comprised 5% of total visitation with 19% of international visitors from Australia, 15% from Canada, 12% from the United Kingdom, and smaller proportions of visitors from 13 other countries. • Seventy percent of visitors indicated having visited San Antonio Missions NHP only once during the last 12 months. Forty-three percent of visitors indicated that they had not visited another National Park Service (NPS) site within the past 12 months. • Ninety-one percent of visitor groups obtained information about San Antonio Missions NHP prior to this trip. The most commonly reported information sources used were previous visits (40%), the park website (33%), friends/relatives/word of mouth (27%) and park maps/brochures (22%). The vast majority (92%) of visitor groups had the information they needed about San Antonio Missions NHP for their trip. • Eighty-eight percent of visitor groups used a car, truck, or SUV to get from their home to the park. Forty-two percent of visitor groups spent up to 2 hours traveling from their home to the park. Fifty-seven percent of visitor groups traveled up to 250 miles from their home to get to the park. • Fifty-one percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting San Antonio Missions NHP was one of several equally important destinations on their trip away from home. Twenty-seven percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting San Antonio Missions NHP was the primary or sole purpose of their trip. • The most important reasons for visitors to visit San Antonio Missions NHP included to learn more about American history and culture (79% of visitor groups), to spend time with friends/family (70% of visitor groups) and to be outdoors (55% of visitor groups). Fifty-five percent of visitor groups reported that visiting a cultural or historic site was their primary activity. Thirteen percent reported that bicycling was their primary activity and seven percent reported that creative arts was their primary activity.

San Antonio Missions National Historical Park socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2016

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