Cape Cod National Seashore socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2015

Resource Systems Group (RSG)

This report describes the results of a visitor study at Cape Cod National Seashore (NS) conducted from August 21 – 31, 2015. During the sampling period, 1,540 visitor groups were contacted to participate in the survey. Of those groups, 1,041 agreed to participate in the study by accepting a mail-back survey packet. Questionnaires were completed and returned by 580 visitor groups, resulting in a completion rate of 56% 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 Cape Cod NS 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-six percent of visitor groups were groups of two, and 28% of visitor groups were groups of four or more. A majority of visitor groups (64%) were family groups. Eighteen percent of visitors were age 65 or older, 21% were 55 to 64 years old, 31% were 35 to 54 years old, 11% were 18 to 34 years old, and 19% were under 18 years old. Hispanic or Latino visitors comprised 3% of visitation during the survey period. Most visitors (95%) were white, and 3% were Asian. Few visitors were black or African American (1%), American Indian or Alaskan Native (<1%), and no visitors were Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. Nearly all visitor groups preferred to speak (98%) and read (98%) English when visiting an area such as Cape Cod NS. Individuals from the United States (U.S.) comprised 93% of total visitation during the survey period. At the state level, 47% of visitors were from Massachusetts, 22% of visitors were from New York, and smaller proportions of visitors were from 31 other states. International visitors comprised 7% of total visitation with 51% of international visitors from Canada, 15% from Germany, 12% from the United Kingdom, and smaller proportions of visitors from 9 other countries. Fifty-three percent of visitors indicated having visited the park only once during the last 12 months, while 25% had visited 3 or more times during the past year. Nearly half (49%) of visitors indicated that they had not visited another National Park Service site within the past 12 months. Eighty-three percent of visitor groups obtained information about Cape Cod NS prior to this trip. The most commonly reported information sources used were previous visits (88%), friends/relatives/word of mouth (32%), maps/brochures (29%), and the park website (23%). The vast majority (93%) of visitor groups had the information they needed about Cape Cod NS for their trip. Ninety-five percent of visitor groups used a car, truck or SUV to get from their home to the park, and 14% used a bicycle (note, respondents could have checked more than one form of transportation). Ninety-four percent of visitor groups spent less than 12 hours traveling from their home to the park. The majority of visitor groups (91%) traveled 999 miles or less from their home to get to the park. Forty-seven percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting Cape Cod NS was the primary purpose of their trip. Forty-six percent of visitor groups indicated that visiting Cape Cod NS was one of several equally important destinations on their trip away from home. The most important reasons for visitors to visit Cape Cod NS included to be outdoors (89% of visitor groups) and to relax (83% of visitor groups). Twenty-five percent of visitor groups reported that water play was their primary activity. Twenty-two percent reported that viewing wildlife, natural features, scenery, wildflowers, or other aspects of natural scenery was their primary activity. One-fifth (20%) of visitor groups reported having no primary activity.

Cape Cod National Seashore socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2015

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