Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2015

Resource Systems Group (RSG)

• This report describes the results of a visitor study at Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve (NPP) conducted from August 7 – 17, 2015. During the sampling period, 1,518 visitor groups were contacted to participate in the survey. Of those groups, 920 agreed to participate in the study by accepting a mail-back survey packet. Questionnaires were completed and returned by 574 visitor groups, resulting in a completion rate of 62% 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 Glacier Bay NPP 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). • Sixty-two percent of visitor groups were groups of two, and 21% of visitor groups were groups of three or four. A majority of visitor groups (58%) identified as groups of family. • Thirty-three percent of visitors were age 65 or older, 27% were 55 to 64 years old, 21% were 35 to 54 years old, 10% were 18 to 34 years old, and 9% were under 18 years old. • Hispanic or Latino visitors comprised 6% of visitation during the survey period. Most visitors (88%) were white, and 9% were Asian. Few visitors were American Indian or Alaskan Native (1%), black or African American (<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 Glacier Bay NPP. • Individuals from the United States (U.S.) comprised 80% of total visitation during the survey period. At the state level, 20% of visitors were from California, 9% of visitors were from Washington, and smaller proportions of visitors were from 41 other states. International visitors comprised 20% of total visitation with 33% of international visitors from Canada, 33% from Australia, 7% from the United Kingdom, and smaller proportions of visitors from 17 other countries. • Ninety-five percent of visitors indicated having visited the park only once during the last 12 months, while 6% had visited more than once during the past year. Over one-third (34%) of visitors indicated that they had not visited another National Park Service site within the past 12 months. • Sixty-eight percent of visitor groups obtained information about Glacier Bay NPP prior to this trip. The most commonly reported information sources used were travel guides/tour books (38%), friends/relatives/word of mouth (36%), the park website (27%), and maps/brochures (27%). The vast majority (95%) of visitor groups had the information they needed about Glacier Bay NPP for their trip. • Eighty-eight percent of visitor groups used water-based transportation to get from their home to the park, and 67% used an airplane (note, respondents could have checked more than one form of transportation). The most common form of water-based transportation used to get from their home to the park was a cruise ship (88% of visitor groups). Forty percent of visitor groups spent more than two days traveling from their home to the park. The majority of visitor groups (73%) traveled 2,000 miles or more from their home to get to the park. • The vast majority of visitor groups (86%) indicated that visiting Glacier Bay NPP was one of several equally important destinations on their trip away from home. Fourteen percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting Glacier Bay NPP was their primary purpose of their trip. • The most important reasons for visitors to visit Glacier Bay NPP included to view wildlife or natural scenery (66% of visitor groups) and to spend time with friends/family (9% of visitor groups). The majority of visitor groups (52%) reported that viewing wildlife, natural features, scenery, wildflowers, or other aspects of natural scenery was their primary activity.

Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2015

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