Higher fees for foreigners visiting US national parks stokes tourism concerns

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A $100-per-person charge for foreigners entering Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and other popular national parks is stoking apprehension among some tourist-oriented businesses that it could discourage travelers, but supporters say the change will generate money for cash-strapped parks.

The new fee was announced Tuesday by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and takes effects Jan. 1. Foreign tourists also will see a sharp price increase for an annual parks pass, to $250 per vehicle. U.S. residents will continue to be charged $80 for an annual pass.

The change in policy puts the U.S. in line with other countries that charge foreigners more to see popular attractions.

At the Whistling Swan Motel just outside Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana, owner Mark Howser estimates that about 15% of his customers are foreigners. They come from Canada, China, India, Spain, France, Germany and elsewhere, said Howser, who also runs a bakery and general store.

Those visitors already pay up to $35 per vehicle to enter the park. Adding the $100-per-person charge for foreigners, Howser said, “is a sure-fire way of discouraging people from visiting Glacier.”

“It’s going to hurt local businesses that cater to foreign travelers, like myself,” he said. “You’re discouraging them from seeing something in the country by attaching a fee to that experience.”

A Yellowstone tour operator, Bryan Batchelder with Let’s Go Adventure Tours and Transportation, said the charge represents “a pretty big hike” for the roughly 30% of his clientele that are foreigners. That percentage has been going up in recent years after Batchelder switched to a new booking service.

Next summer, he said, will reveal how the new charge plays out among foreign visitors. “They’ll probably still come to the country, but will they visit national parks?” Batchelder asked.

The charge also will apply at Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yosemite and Zion national parks.

Interior officials described the new fee structure as “America-first pricing” that will ensure international visitors contribute to maintaining parks.

For Yellowstone park alone, the $100 charge could generate $55 million annually to help fix deteriorating trails and aging bridges, said Brian Yablonski with the Property and Environment Research Center, a free market research group based in Bozeman, Montana.

If the charges for foreigners were extended to park sites nationwide, Yablonski said it could generate more than $1 billion from an estimated 14 million international visitors annually.

“Americans are already paying more than international visitors because they are paying taxes,” Yablonski said. “For international visitors, this is kind of a no-brainer, common sense approach.”

Many other countries charge international visitors an extra fee to visit public sites, said Melissa Weddell, director of the University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research. Foreign visitors to Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, for example, pay $200 per adult, while Ecuadorian nationals pay only $30, according to tourist websites for the islands.

A coalition of current and former employees park service denounced the new charge.

“In a year where national park staff have already been cut by nearly 25%, we worry this will be yet another burden for already overworked employees,″ said Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.

“National parks should be available and accessible to all, or America’s best idea will become America’s greatest shakedown,″ she said.

Gerry Seavo James, deputy campaign director for Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All campaign, said Trump and his administration have worked for nearly a year to undermine the park service, slashing its budget and firing thousands of staff.

“Gouging foreign tourists at the entrance gate won’t provide the financial support these crown jewels of our public lands need,” he said. “Without that support, we run the risk of our true common grounds becoming nothing more than playgrounds for the super-rich.”

Interior Department spokesperson Elizabeth Peace said the agency previously did not collect data on international visitors but will start doing so in January.

Republican lawmakers in July introduced a bill in Congress that would codify the surcharge for foreign visitors to national parks. It’s sponsored by West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore and Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, who served as interior secretary during Trump’s firs term.

“President Trump and Secretary Burgum are putting Americans first by asking foreign visitors to pay their fair share while holding entrance fees steady for the American people,” Zinke and Moore said in a statement Wednesday.

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Daly reported from Washington, D.C.