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National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Visitor Study Fall 2016 ON THIS PAGE Photograph of Lake Powell in Glen Canyon NRA Photograph courtesy of Glen Canyon NRA ON THE COVER Historic photograph of Lake Powell Photograph courtesy of Glen Canyon NRA Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Visitor Study Fall 2016 Lena Le, Matthew Strawn, and Kristen Petersen Social and Economic Sciences Research Center Washington State University Wilson-Short Hall # 133 Pullman, WA 99164-4014 January 2018 U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service The study was conducted via a collaborative agreement between the National Park Service and Washington State University (CESU Task Agreement # P15AC00089). Survey questionnaire and protocols were approved by Office of Management Budget approval # 1024-0224. Views, statements, findings, conclusions, recommendations, and data in this report do not necessarily reflect views and policies of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the U.S. Government. This report is available in digital format from the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center website (https://sesrc.wsu.edu/), and the Natural Resource Publications Management website (http://www.nature.nps.gov/publications/nrpm/). To receive this report in a format optimized for screen readers, please email [email protected]. Please cite this publication as: Le, Y. and Strawn, M. 2017. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Visitor Study: Fall 2016. Pullman, WA: Social and Economic Sciences Research Center at Washington State University. The “Summer survey” in this report refers to the Socioeconomic Monitoring Pilot study conducted by RSG in collaboration with the Social Science Branch, National Park Service. The full report can also be requested via Natural Resource Publications Management system. The Summer survey report should be cited as: Resource Systems Group (RSG). 2017. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area socioeconomic monitoring pilot implementation: Summer 2016. Natural Resource Report NPS/GLCA/NRR—2017/1520. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. The results in this report include unweighted frequencies of the Fall survey. If applicable, Fall survey results were also compared with unweighted frequencies of the Summer survey. ii Contents Page Contents ............................................................................................................................... iii Executive Summary ............................................................................................................. xi Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................ xv About the Authors ........................................................................................................ xv Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 Presentation of the Results ........................................................................................ 2 Methods ................................................................................................................................ 3 Survey Design and Procedures ..................................................................................... 3 Sample size and sampling plan ................................................................................. 3 Questionnaire design ................................................................................................. 3 Survey procedure ...................................................................................................... 4 Data analysis ............................................................................................................. 4 Limitations ................................................................................................................. 5 Checking non-response bias ..................................................................................... 6 Results ................................................................................................................................. 7 Group and Visitor Characteristics ................................................................................... 7 Visitor group size ....................................................................................................... 7 Number of adults and children ................................................................................... 8 Visitor group type ....................................................................................................... 9 Visitors with organized groups ................................................................................. 10 United States visitors by state of residence ............................................................. 12 Visitors from counties in Utah .................................................................................. 14 International visitors by country of residence ........................................................... 14 Number of visits to park in the past 12 months ........................................................ 15 Number of visits to other national parks in the past 12 months ................................ 16 Visitor age ............................................................................................................... 17 Visitor gender .......................................................................................................... 18 Visitors of Hispanic/Latino ethnicity ......................................................................... 18 iii Visitor race .............................................................................................................. 19 Visitor language preference ..................................................................................... 20 Visitor level of education .......................................................................................... 22 Park Specific Management Considerations .................................................................. 23 Visitor awareness of park management ................................................................... 23 Visitor aware of rules/regulations ............................................................................. 24 Trip/Visit Characteristics and Preferences ................................................................... 27 Information sources prior to visit .............................................................................. 27 Forms of transportation used to travel to park ......................................................... 31 Number of vehicles used to travel to park ................................................................ 32 Parking problems experienced during this visit ........................................................ 33 Willingness to park at a designated area and ride a shuttle ..................................... 33 Length of stay .......................................................................................................... 34 Overnight accommodations/lodging ......................................................................... 35 Number of nights in the area ................................................................................... 36 Locations visited inside the park .............................................................................. 44 Activities participated in this visit.............................................................................. 45 Most important activity this visit ............................................................................... 49 Visitors with a physical condition ............................................................................. 51 Importance of facilities ............................................................................................. 53 Use of facilities ........................................................................................................ 55 Quality of facilities used ........................................................................................... 56 Importance of services ............................................................................................ 61 Use of services ........................................................................................................ 63 Quality of services used........................................................................................... 64 Additional services or facilities ................................................................................. 67 Importance of attributes and resources ................................................................... 69 Likelihood of visiting park in future ........................................................................... 71 Interpretive program /information services desired in future .................................... 73 Visitor Comment Summaries ....................................................................................... 74 iv What visitor groups like most and least ................................................................... 74 Overall quality .......................................................................................................... 81 References ........................................................................................................................