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GCNP visitation down,<br>bus traffic takes big hit

Although Grand Canyon National Park’s visitor by vehicle traffic has been slightly up this year, the overall numbers lag 6.1 percent behind the 2001 statistics.

That’s because the tour bus industry took a big hit after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and never really recovered.

"We’re still seeing a very large decrease in visitors by commercial tour buses," GCNP public affairs officer Maureen Oltrogge said. "Obviously, that’s probably due to the decrease in international visitors."

And International travelers represent a significant portion of the Grand Canyon tourism market. Most all area businesses from air-tour operators to restaurants serving those mid-day buffets report lower numbers.

"It’s still not looking good," Oltrogge said. "Right after 9/11 occurred, bus visitation was down 65 percent. So it’s on the rebound, but really hovering right around 36 percent (decrease)."

Through August, bus visitation was down 36.6 percent through the South Entrance, down 35.69 percent through the East Entrance and down 6.21 percent through the North Rim Entrance.

"There were predictions earlier that it would last possibly through next spring," Oltrogge said about visitation trends. "We’ll have to wait to see what happens."

The park’s overall tourism numbers are down 6.06 percent (2.9 million) through the first eight months, compared to 2001. South Entrance numbers are down 7.96 percent with the only bright spot being a 2.97-percent increase for visitors via Grand Canyon Railway.

The two entrance areas showing increases are the North Rim (6.09 percent) and Grand Wash (40.52 percent).

Could the lower tourism numbers be more than post-Sept. 11 impacts? Or are other parks doing better than Grand Canyon in terms of visitation?

Among the other large parks in the West which have drawn more than 500,000 visitors through August, only Sequoia National Park in California and Yellowstone National Park have shown increases. Sequoia is up 9.9 percent and Yellowstone reports a 7.7-percent increase.

Other parks, including Bryce Canyon, Death Valley and Saguaro show double-digit decreases. Overall, most national parks appear to be down this year.

The NPS has tried some marketing tactics to draw more people to the park. On two occasions this summer, entrance fees have been waived at Grand Canyon. During one weekend in August, Oltrogge said the decision to waive fees was made by the superintendent despite an estimated loss of $100,000 in revenue.

"But he felt it was important for the tourism community to revamp and get more visitors to Grand Canyon National Park," she added.

Grand Canyon does seem to be a more and more popular subject among the media, which officials hope will positively impact tourism numbers. Oltrogge said a few weeks ago that 33 permits for commercial filming had been issued this year.

"We usually do 25 to 30 permits annually," she said. "That includes travel programs, commercials, still shoots for magazines, calendars ... and we have a new person dedicated to filming."

With the new employee, Grand Canyon can improve on its turnaround time to approve or decline requests.

"We can really work more with the filming industry now and take more last-minute requests," Oltrogge said.

Among the recent programs seen on television include Grand Canyon-related documentaries on PBS, the History Channel and the Travel Channel.

There have been other projects involving a series on hiking, Grand Canyon Railway, a show on a Grand Canyon challenge produced by the Discovery Health Channel and Dateline NBC’s report on a Phoenix-area arsonist who confessed while hiking at the Canyon.

The Arizona Office of Tourism also sponsored a program called "Wish You Were Here," filmed entirely on the Colorado River.

"A lot is being done to film and promote the Grand Canyon and I think that helps visitors prepare before they get here," Oltrogge said.

In another marketing move, the park has been working with tourism-related businesses by providing an informational sheet on how to get to Grand Canyon and what to do.

"Apparently, it’s been met with a lot of success," Oltrogge said. "We just recently updated them."

The park makes available to businesses a template of the bulletin so copies can be made to distribute to their visitors.


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