The notion of requiring reservations for all Zion National Park visitors is “a horrible idea” and “a huge mistake” that would hamper park visitation and nearby businesses.
That’s the conclusion of Steve Neeleman, a member of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) board and whose family owns the Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort adjacent to the park.
At the board’s August meeting, Neeleman took aim at some of the National Park Service’s preliminary concepts designed to address overcrowding and traffic congestion in and near Zion. Two of the three concepts being considered would require that visitors make reservations in advance online. One concept calls for reservations covering all frontcountry areas, while another calls for reservations for heavily used trails and other crowded areas in frontcountry areas of the park, with all day-use hikers needing permits.
The reservation system is part of two alternatives being considered by the National Park Service. The other concept is a “no-action” alternative, meaning the park would continue current management practices. The NPS says it has not yet identified a preferred alternative and that the preferred alternative might feature a modified version of the three concepts.
The public comment period on the concepts has lapsed, and the NPS is expecting to have a draft visitor use management (VUM) plan and environmental assessment released in the fall of 2018.
Requiring reservations for anyone spending significant time in Zion, “I think, until they optimize a bunch of other stuff, is a horrible idea,” said Neeleman, whose family has owned the 5,000-acre resort since 1962. It employs about 150 people.
“The problem here is because of the underfunding, because of the over-visitation — which has been great for the state of Utah, it’s been great for businesses and things like that, like ours — the park is wielding a hammer to this thing and they’re just saying, ‘Look, we’re just going to make everyone have a reservation to come to Zion.’ You’re going to see visitation drop.”
Some parts of Zion are empty while others are “completely full of people,” he said. With the use of technology, an expansion of the park’s shuttle system and a requirement for reservations for specific hiking spots, “they could still have great visitation, [and] still have great user experience,” he said.
“A simple question is, do we think it makes sense as Utahns to have to have a reservation to go to Zion and then Bryce and then Canyonlands and everything else, or is that something that maybe should happen 20 years from now?”
Vicki Varela, GOED’s managing director of tourism, film and global branding and a member of the executive committee of the U.S. Travel Association, said that about a half-dozen national parks, including two in Utah, are likely to require reservations.
“It seems almost inevitable at this point that both Arches and Zion will end up with some sort of a reservation system, and we are scrambling to figure out how we manage the complexity of all of that,” she said.
The National Park Service says Zion visitation in 2016 reached more than 4.3 million, up 60 percent during the past decade and up from 3.66 million the prior year. This year’s Memorial Day weekend alone had more than 90,000 visitors. Most use a shuttle system to get through Zion Canyon, a six-mile corridor along the Virgin River. Traffic often is backed up at the park entrance near Springdale, and trails, campgrounds and other visitor infrastructure are seeing wear and tear more quickly than funding allows for repair, according to the NPS.
Varela said the reasons for increased visitation include a growing middle class worldwide, including China; millennials who prefer experiences over acquisitions; and effective marketing, including the “Mighty 5” campaign to lure more people to Utah’s five national parks. That has worked to boost annual tourism spending in Utah to $8.4 billion.
“I think the simplest way of describing the challenge in Utah is that Zion National Park visitation increased 40 percent over the last five years, concurrent with a 5 percent budget cut,” she said. “The math doesn’t work.”
She said a focus needs to be put on “responsible tourism,” with innovative thinking and increased funding playing a key role. Hampering the planning is that the Trump administration has not fully staffed agencies overseeing the parks, she said
“It will be complex and it will take a lot of time because we know things are chaotic in Washington right now,” she said. “I think we’re at the beginning of a long, complex project that I’m very passionate about.”
GOED board member Bevan Wilson saw the irony of the state pushing for years to get more people to come to the parks but now finding them overcrowded. “In your case, this is a huge achievement,” he said of efforts to boost visitation, “and I think it’s really built up.”
Varela said she is “kind of on the bubble … between credit and blame,” adding that she wants to stay on the credit side.
“I feel like I’m having to move pretty fast to make sure that our communities continue to welcome tourists and that our tourists continue to have a positive experience,” she said. “We just need to be very responsible, now that we know that Utah attracts the level of interest that it does, that these next number of years are so important to make sure we get it right.”