NATIONAL PARK SERVICE VISITATION AND INTEREST IN OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES: AN UPDATE THROUGH 2009 Rodney B. Warnick, Ph.D. University of Massachusetts at Amherst Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management 90 Campus Center Way Amherst, MA 01003-9247 Michael A. Schuett, Texas A & M University Walt Kuentzel, University of Vermont Thomas A. More; U.S. Forest Service Experiment Station, Burlington, Vermont Thomas Stevens; University of Massachusetts at Amherst Abstract. The purpose of this paper was to specifically examine and update the recent findings in the literature that proposes that national park visitation is on the decline. Data from a large, national syndicated secondary dataset were examined by individual participation data collected on an annual basis in a consistently replicated manner over a period of 2000-2009. In addition, inquiry data from Google Insights for vacation travel to national and state parks was also used as a proxy measure to determine if interest for outdoor recreation visitation to national and state parks had declined. While there was evidence of some decline in visitation to national parks from 2000-2009 with most of the decline associated with the period of 2000-2004; however, there was also a rebound in interest from 2004 through 2009 with the exception of a dip in 2008. The decline does not appear to be dramatic. The media use does provide additional insights into visitation based on media use. There was some decline of interest in visiting national parks during vacation travel; however, this decline has been cyclical and again not overly dramatic. Keywords: outdoor recreation trends, recreation activities, national park visitation, secondary data source, media use and Google Insights. 1.0 Background and Introduction The overall purpose of this paper was to examine the assertions made by Pergams and Zaradic (2006) regarding national park visitation, interest in and participation in selected outdoor recreational activities and to update a previous analysis of these data with more research data from 2000-2009 and to examine other data sets providing insights into the interest in national park visitation. This effort was to specifically examine some of the specific findings established in the Pergams and Zaradic (2006) study by examining data from two large, national syndicated secondary datasets where individual data are collected on an annual basis in a consistently replicated manner over a lengthy study period. The data compiled for this research study was obtained from two research reports of self-reported participation and visitation and interest data, namely the Mediamark’s Topline Research Reports (2000-2009) and Google Insights™. Larger issues of whether interest in the national park visitation can be linked to changes in interests of households and individuals based media related activities were also examined here where possible. The research and review of materials in this study are partial funded by a grant from the US Forest Service Research Station in Burlington, Vermont and cooperative agreements with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Texas A & M University of College Station, Texas and the University of Vermont of Burlington, Vermont. 2.0 Review of Literature This research was prompted by the attention given to the findings and conclusions of Pergams and Zaradic (2006). In this study, other data sets were examined to determine if a similar conclusion could be reached when direct measures of self-reported national park visitation and related activity interests were further analyzed from the current decade where data were available. To summarize Pergams and Zaradic’s study (“Is love of nature in the US becoming love of electron media? 16-year downtrend in national park visits explained by watching movies, playing video games, internet use and oil prices.” Journal of Environmental Management, 2006. Vol. 80: 387-393) the following explanations are presented here. Pergams and Zaradic (2006) concluded that the U.S. population and culture are moving into an era of “videophilia” and away from “biophilia.” “Videophilia” is a growing interest in being entertained by passive media or video experiences instead of outdoor engagement including national park visitation and outdoor recreation activity participation in the environmental world. The decline in national park visitation in recent years was part of the indication of the change from interest in the outdoor world to a more concentrated interest in passive media engagement provided by a combination of new video digital devices. The entertainment indicators driving this trend included: 1) hours of television viewed; 2) participation in playing video games; 3) viewing home movies; 4) theatre attendance and 5) internet use, including the growth in popularity of social networking media. Other factors included oil prices, foreign travel, and general decline in specific types of hikers – Appalachian Trail hikers for example. The