Colonial National Historical Park socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2016

Resource Systems Group (RSG)

• This report describes the results of a visitor study at Colonial National Historical Park (NHP) conducted from June 3 through June 12, 2016. During the sampling period, 861 visitor groups were contacted to participate in the survey. Of those groups, 764 agreed to participate in the study by accepting a mail-back survey packet. Questionnaires were completed and returned by 410 visitor groups, resulting in a completion rate of 54% among those visitor groups that agreed to participate in the study and an overall response rate of 48% for the study. • This report profiles a systematic sample of Colonial 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-nine percent of visitor groups were groups of two, and 42% of visitor groups were groups of three or more members. The majority of visitor groups (73%) identified as groups of family. • Twenty-six percent of visitors were 65 years old or older, 17% of visitors were 55 to 64 years old, 26% of visitor were 35 to 54 years old, 10% of visitors were 18 to 34 years old, and 21% of visitors were under 18 years old. • Hispanic or Latino visitors comprised 5% of visitation during the survey period. Most visitors (96%) were white. Few visitors were American Indian or Alaska Native (2%), Black or African American (2%), Asian (1%) or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (<1%). • Nearly all visitor groups preferred to speak (99%) and read (99%) English when visiting an area such as Colonial NHP. • Individuals from the United States comprised 97% of total visitation during the survey period. At the state level, 16% of visitors were from Virginia, 7% of visitors were from Ohio, and smaller proportions of visitors were from 44 other states. International visitors comprised 3% of total visitation with 41% of international visitors from the United Kingdom, 25% from Canada, and smaller proportions of visitors from six other countries. • Eighty percent of visitors indicated having visited Colonial NHP only once during the last 12 months, while 19% had visited two or more times during the past year. Thirty-three percent of visitors indicated that they had not visited another National Park Service (NPS) site within the past 12 months while 23% indicated that they had been to another NPS site one time during the past year. • Eighty-five percent of visitor groups obtained information about Colonial NHP prior to this trip. The most commonly reported information sources used were the park website (37%), previous visits (34%), park maps/brochures (26%) and friends/relatives/word or mouth (24%). The clear majority (95%) of visitor groups had the information they needed about Colonial NHP for their trip. • Ninety-eight percent of visitor groups used a car, truck, or SUV to get from their home to the park. Forty-five percent of visitor groups spent up to six hours traveling from their home to the park. Thirty-three percent of visitor groups traveled up to 250 miles from their home to get to the park. • Sixty-two percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting Colonial NHP was one of several equally important destinations on their trip away from home. Twenty-seven percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting Colonial NHP was the primary or sole purpose of their trip. • The most important reasons for visitors to visit Colonial NHP included to learn more about American history and culture (63% of visitor groups) and to spend time with friends/family (19% of visitor groups). Sixty-nine percent of visitor groups reported that visiting a cultural or historic site was their primary activity. Seventeen percent of visitor groups reported having no primary activity. • Seventy-five percent of visitors stayed overnight in the nearby area.

Colonial National Historical Park socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2016

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