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NPS Public Use Statistics January 2008
Units of the National Park System received 10.8 million recreation visits in January 2008. This was
a 5.5% decrease in recreation visits, or 0.6 million fewer visits than in 2007. January has historically been the least visited month of the year, providing less than 4% of the annual total of recreation visits. However, the report shows gains in overnight stays.
For the full report, Click Here
NPHA 2008 Annual Meeting: Constructive Outcomes Based on Commonality
 Washington, D.C. (March 19, 2008) The National Park Hospitality Association held its 2008 annual meeting in Washington from March 9th to 12th at The Madison Hotel and the U.S. Department of the Interior. Approximately 100 concessioners and allies participated in discussions on promoting park visitation, allowable concession activities to support park projects and programs, harnessing technology to serve park visitors, and a variety of other key concessioner issues. This year’s annual meeting highlighted NPHA’s work in partnership with the National Park Service (NPS), the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), state and local tourism agencies, and other organizations interested in strengthening the national parks.
For the full report, Click Here
NPS Public Use Statistics January - November 2007
The National Park Service recently released its statistics for the first 11 months of 2007.
Overall recreation visits increased by 0.8%.
Substantial variations by region and type of unit were reported.
For the full report, click here
NPHA Board Meets
The National Park Hospitality Association Board of Directors had a conference call meeting on January 16 and took several important actions.
First, it approved an offer to Unilever Ice Cream to be the association’s first Preferred Vendor, authorizing a written agreement under which all concessioners will invite offers from the company to supply ice cream products and NPHA and Unilever will agree on a program which will make a percentage of sales available to fund Centennial park projects. The board has also invited other vendors to apply for Preferred Vendor status prior to its March meeting.
Second, the board reiterated its support for concessioners to provide matching funds directly and in cooperation with customers for Centennial projects at the regional and national levels. It also urged the Congress to provide the needed federal matching funds from general appropriations.
Third, it agreed to provide financial support for the Outdoor Recreation Village in Glendale, AZ, which will seek to stimulate more healthy outdoor recreation participation, especially for kids, and invited individual members to join Forever Resorts in this project.
Finally, it approved plans for the March annual meeting, including a portion of the meeting to be held at the U.S. Department of the Interior and involving top departmental and NPS staff.
Upcoming Annual Meeting: Washington, D.C. March 9-12, 2008
The NPHA 2008 annual meeting will be held in Washington, D.C from March 9-12, 2008. Plan to take part in an important, information-packed conference focusing on the issues shaping the concessions industry. This year’s annual meeting will include time with Members of Congress, Interior Department and National Park Service officials and other key guests. We’ll discuss park visitation promotion, restrictions on concessioner activities linked to fund-raising, the 2008 elections and other public policy issues. Your participation will help boost visibility of the concessions industry in Washington, demonstrate NPHA’s commitment to partnership with the National Park Service and help us promote public policies that will reconnect Americans with their parks.
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- Registration Form
Registration and hotel reservations are required by Wednesday, February 6, 2008.
To register or for more information, please contact Caroline Mica, cmica@funoutdoors.com, 202-682-9530
Preferred Vendor
NPHA has pledged to assist in funding for national and regional NPS Centennial Initiative projects and programs. The Preferred Vendor program was developed as a means to fulfill this pledge. The Preferred Vendor program is designed to encourage best practices in business-to-business relations, improved experiences for park visitors and new opportunities for meeting the needs of national parks and park visitors. The program will recognize vendors specially committed to providing NPHA members with superior products and services as well as supporting the park concessioner industry’s mission, including sponsorship of Centennial Challenge Fund projects and programs. Designated Preferred Vendor program will be aided in making proposals to NPHA members, but members will not be obligated to purchase offered goods or services, and the offerings of Preferred Vendors will not be “category non-exclusive.”
Please help us identify companies that might be great candidates for the Preferred Vendor program!
NPS Shows Slight Rise in Visitation
Although national park visitation started slow in 2007, national parks proved a good magnet for visitors in the summer months and the 9-month report now shows a 1.3% increase over the comparable period of 2006. As the NPS report indicates, the trends differ from region to region and by type of park. But high gas prices do not appear to be a strong deterrent. One other consideration is that international visitation is up significantly for 2007 -- in part reflecting a bargain with the current valuation of the US dollar against many other currencies, including the Canadian dollar. Unfortunately, NPS data does not allow much analysis of visitor orgin and other key characteristics.
New NPS Geocaching Policy Provides Partnership Opportunities for Concessioners
Geocaching, Virtual Caching and Letterboxing are new GPS-related activities that can add significant recreational and educational value for park visitors. Our research demonstrates that technology-aided activities will be welcomed by many younger visitors – and can help deliver valuable interpretation and environmental education in formats attuned to Americans immersed in the wireless world. The National Park Service has released a policy review on GPS-based recreational activities in park areas addressing public outreach and education challenges, as well as suggestions for monitoring and management policies associated with these new activities.
Geocaching and related GPS activities can help NPHA members be good partners with the National Park Service while also better serving our customers. NPS policy will allow expansion of these activities where NPS officials are kept informed and the activities are designed to promote appropriate behaviors and experiences are protect natural, cultural and historic resources. NPS Concessioners can play an integral part in helping the Park Service promote and manage GPS activities. Concessioners can provide a liaison between the park visitor and the park rangers, working with NPS staff to create and monitor virtual caches and other features and explain the importance of demonstrating responsible behavior while hunting for caches. GPS activities excite and entice visitors, providing concessioner’s guests with a pleasurable experience. Overall, concessioners can benefit from the recreational activities that use GPS technology in park areas.
For the full National Park Service Policy Review “GPS - based Recreational Activities in Park Areas”: Click Here
NPHA will offer more information about geocaching and opportunities for concessioners in the November newsletter.
NPHA Defines Mission, Membership and Services
The National Park Hospitality Association Board of Directors met on October 14 and adopted a new mission statement and new membership services. The “Mission, Goals, Action - 2008" statement defines and expands the organization’s focus as (i) becoming outstanding active partners with the National Park Service and (ii) providing premiere services and opportunities for park visitors. The board also identified the NPS Centennial Initiative, including the proposed Centennial Challenge Fund, as the priority public policy goal.
New NPHA members ARAMARK and Delaware North Companies played an active role in the NPHA meeting, and representatives of those companies plus Guest Services Inc. were added to the NPHA Executive Committee. Bruce Fears of ARAMARK and Mr. Kevin Kelly of Delaware North Companies are now vice chairmen positions, while Gerard Gabrys was elected as Concessioners Centennial Council Chairman, a new post on the Executive Committee. In addition, a new post on the Executive Committee was created for Past Chairmen, and Rex Maughan of Forever Resorts was elected to that office.
The Board approved a wide range of new member services – from quarterly tele-workshops to a new Preferred Vendor program to access to the biweekly (and authoritative) Federal Parks and Recreation newsletter, available to all NPHA members through the redesigned website, www.parkpartners.org. A new e-newsletter will keep NPHA members, key NPS staff and allies informed of NPHA news and activities.
New Survey Reveals American Travelers Prefer Green Services But Not Willing to Pay Extra
Americans have a strong sense of environmental responsibility but they are not willing to pay a premium for green services. The latest travelhorizions™ survey by The Travel Industry Association (TIA) and Ypartnership reports while more than half of all U.S. adults would be more likely to select environmental friendly products and processes, only 14% would base their choice of travel service supplier on preservation and conservation practices. “The results of the survey suggest that awareness of a travel service supplier’s efforts to operate in an environmentally responsible manner may be sufficient to attract additional patronage, but not at a significantly higher fare or rate,” according to Suzanne Cook, TIA’s Senior Vice President of Research.
Read More
The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 Soon to Impact Concessioners
As of January 1, 2008, all US retailers must be in compliance with the Coin Act of 2005. As Park Concessioners on Federal land, we will be under particularly close scrutiny as we take these last few months of 2007 to implement $1 coin mechanisms in our vending machines and train our workforce to recognize and accept these new gold coins as mandated by this law. More information about how this law will impact your business is available at the US Mint $1 Coin Program.
After meeting with David Kim, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the US Mint in Washington, DC, NPHA members will soon have a direct link to training on the Coin Act provided by the Mint. Also, NPHA is working directly with Mint officials to design unique business opportunities between the Mint and NPHA members. More information forthcoming…
Park Visitation Rises, Now Equals 2006 Levels
Units of the National Park System received 162 million recreation visits in January-July 2007. This was a 0.1% increase in recreation visits, or 0.2 million more visits than in 2006. The National Capital Region (-5% or -1.4 million visits) had the largest decrease of the seven Regions while the Northeast Region had the largest numerical increase (+2% or 519,800). This also marks the first period in several years when visitation was actually up from the prior year. Unfortunately, the increase is well below the population increase of the nation over the year -- so the trend of a small portion of the US population benefiting from park visits continues.
Visitor Declines in National Parks Continue for 2007
According to the latest statistics, visitation to our national parks continues to decline in 2007. This follows the same declining trend that has occurred for the past 8 years. Since 1999, park visitation has declined approximately 5%, or by about 15 million visitors. The NPS Public Use Statistics Office recently released their monthly report indicating that park recreational visitation has declined by 3.6% overall in the months from January to Arpil, 2007 compared to the same dates from 2006. This amounts to 2.4 million fewer recreational visits than in 2006 in the same time period.
The report also indicates that approximately half of our national parks have experienced year-to-date decreases in visits. The continued visitor declines are of great concern to the NPS, NPHA, and all of our concessioners. In fact, this year, NPHA hopes to initiate programs in conjunction with the NPS Centennial Challenge that will reverse the recent declines. We hope that the American public will begin to see the immense and important value of getting back to the outdoors, especially the kids, and back into our national parks.
NPHA Meets in Washington, D.C. for 2007 Annual Meeting
On March 5, 2007 the National Park Hospitality Association met at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C. for their 2007 Annual Meeting. The meeting was preceded by a Welcome Reception, hosted by the Coca-Cola Company, attended by many association members, personnel from the National Park Service, and the Department of the Interior. NPHA Chairman, Joe Fassler, called the meeting to order the morning of March 5th to begin a two day conference filled with informative presentations from key Members of Congress, the National Park Service, the Department of Labor, and a prestigious law firm involved with an important concession’s issue.
Jo Pendry, Concessions Program Manager for the National Park Service (NPS), and always a welcome guest speaker to the NPHA meetings. Jo gave presentations on a number of NPS concessions activities including concessions contract updates, proposed insurance requirements, and the service contract act issue.
Senator Craig Thomas was the next speaker. Senator Thomas is the Ranking Member on the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks and spoke about Senate priorities in the upcoming year for the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior. Senator Thomas is fighting leukemia through chemotherapy and all of us at NPHA appreciated his effort to attend our meeting and wish him the best on his recovery. At this point, the meeting broke for lunch and the Board of Directors meeting. During this lunch break John Pucetas, president of SiteTek Financial Arts, Inc. led a roundtable discussion for a number of NPHA members explaining the complexities of the NPS Uniformat system of asset management and the electronic filing of annual financial reports.
Mr. Timothy Helm, Team Leader for the Government Contracts Enforcement Division of the Department of Labor, led off the Monday afternoon session with a presentation on the Service Contract Act. He walked through the history of the Service Contract Act and then discussed the recent determinations made by the Department of Labor that the Service Contract Act (SCA) did apply to certain NPS concessions contracts, i.e., those that have no specific exemptions from the SCA applicability, for example, transportation services. For these contracts the employer must pay prevailing wages, plus fringe benefits for health and retirement. He also noted that the SCA, if applicable to an NPS concessions contract, would need to cover seasonal as well as full-time employees. This would be especially burdensome to many of the concessioners.
Afterward, Jo Pendry spoke again accompanied by Geoff Baekey of PricewaterhouseCoopers, who gave a detailed power point presentation on the proposed contract insurance requirements. Geoff noted that the insurance requirements were a work in progress and that some of details still needed to be addressed and would welcome any input from NPHA members.
Finishing the day one of the Annual Meeting was Congressman Rob Bishop, the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on National Parks. He gave a House perspective on the immediate priorities of his Subcommittee, but since the 110th Congressional session has just begun, legislative initiatives were limited as yet. The Congressman did take a keen interest in two important issues to NPHA, the Service Contract Act and the De Novo Amendment.
Tuesday morning began with the annual Board of Directors elections. For the past year, the Board of Directors had not been operating under its full compliment of 13 directors, but this year the electoral slate contained exactly 13 names and the slate was unanimously accepted by the general membership. New members to the Board of Directors include Brad Hill, with Evelyn Hill, Inc., John Rutter, with Grand Teton Lodge Company, and John Schoppmann, with Forever Resorts. The ten members serving on the Board last year all remain on the Board. The first duty of the new Board of Directors is to choose board officers and the board unanimously selected Joe Fassler, who will continue as Board Chairman, Dave Woodside as Vice-chairman, Pam Pitts as Secretary, and Carol Metzler as Treasurer.
After the elections, Jim Santini and Tod Hull gave an update of the past year’s legislative activities and what the future holds. The two most important issues for NPHA remain the Service Contract Act and the De Novo Amendment and Hull and Santini have spent the majority of their efforts meeting with and talking to Members of Congress and Committee Staff, explaining the position of NPHA while urging them to take action on both issues. With the change in leadership in Congress for the 110th Session, Hull and Santini will be talking with different Members who now hold key positions in Congress. Tod also updated the membership on his activities, besides the legislative efforts, which included developing the programs and then overseeing both the Mid-year Meeting and the Annual meeting, building membership, and addressing the 2006 NPS Management Policies.
Next, NPHA was pleased to welcome Chuck Birenbaum and Bob Spagat, attorneys for Winston & Strawn, LLP, a law firm which has been deeply involved the Service Contract Act issue and have filed an appeal, on behalf of Hornblower/Alcatraz Cruises, to the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board to overturn DOL’s determination that the Service Contract Act applies to the Alcatraz Island concession. In tandem, they gave a very informative presentation on the SCA, emphasizing the history of the Act which clearly indicates that Park Service concessions contracts were to be exempt from the SCA. They also noted that there had never been a DOL determination that the SCA applies to NPS concessions contracts until very recently, the point being that for most of its enactment, even DOL didn’t believe the SCA applied to NPS concessions contracts. NPHA will continue to support Winston & Strawn and their efforts to the Department of Labor.
Our next speaker was Congressman Nick J. Rahall, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, and we were honored and pleased to have him as a guest. It is not often that we are fortunate to have the Chairman of the committee of parks jurisdiction to attend our meetings. The Chairman noted that it is still early in the legislative year and, as yet, had no major parks legislation in mind. He was somewhat concerned with the Park Service budget and the philanthropic/private donations part of the $258 million increase for park operations in fiscal year 2008. The Chairman was attentive to our two major issues, SCA and De Novo, and would have his staff look into them.
The last speaker of the meeting was a familiar face to many of our members, Derrick Crandall, President of the American Recreation Coalition. Derrick gave an informative presentation on recreation in the outdoors in America, and emphasized in particular, the decline in visitation to the 390 park units over the last decade or so. He mentioned that the American Recreation Coalition is very involved in a number of projects that would turn the visitation declines, including the Park Service Centennial Challenge. Derrick also mentioned that, because of a national concern with health and obesity, especially in children and adolescents, there are now many avenues to partner with other federal agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education.
The Annual Meeting concluded with many of our members going to Capitol Hill to meet with their Representative or Senator(s) in order to introduce themselves, in person, and to advocate for issues important to NPHA. The Hill visits are part of a revitalized effort of past years and can play an extremely important role in getting NPHA issues in front of Congressmen. Member contacts included: Pam Pitts with Sen. Dianne Feinstein; Ed Wimberly with Congresswoman Cathy McMorris-Rogers; John Schoppmann and Bill Butts with Congressman Rick Renzi and; Lee Harlow with Congresswoman Mazie Hirono. Thanks to all the members who made the Hill visits!
Results of 2007 Congressional Elections Mean Changes in Committee Leadership
The Democrats took over both the House of Representives and the Senate from the Republicans which, among other things, means that the Committee and Subcommittee Chairs and agendas will change. On the House side, Cong. Nick Rahall (WV) will be the new House Resource Committee chair, replacing Cong. Richard Pombo who lost his re-election bid. Since Pombo lost, the ranking member for the Resource Committee has not been decided. Some names in the running for this position include: John Duncan (TN), Jim Saxton (NJ), Elton Gallegly (CA), Wayne Gilchrest (MD), and Ken Calvert (CA). In all probability, Delagate Donna Christensen (USVI) will be the new chair of the Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation, and Public Lands replacing Cong. Stevan Pearce (NM), who has served well over the last couple of years. Other names in the running for Subcommittee chair include Dale Kildee (MI) and Tom Udall (NM).
Also on the House side, Cong. David Obey will become the new chair of the Approriations Committee and Cong. Norm Dicks (WA) will become new chair of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee replacing Cong. Charles Taylor (NC), who also lost his re-election bid. Zach Wamp (TN) and John Peterson (PA) are candidates being considered for the ranking member on the Interior Subcommittee.
On the Senate side, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (NM) will take over the helm of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee replacing Sen. Pete Domenici, who will become the ranking member. Sen. Ron Wyden (OR) will, in all probability become chair of the National Parks Subcommittee, although Sen. Daniel Akaka is another name mentioned. Sen. Robert Byrd (WV) will become new chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Sen Byron Dorgan (ND) will probably become the Interior Subcommittee chair replacing Conrad Burns, who lost his re-election bid. It is a toss-up as to who will become ranking member on the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, but some names to consider include Sen. Ted Stevens (AK), Sen. Bob Bennett (UT), and Sen. Judd Gregg (NH).
The Committee will form sometime in January, 2007 when the members, both House and Senate, put in their requests and the leadership makes the assignments.
NPS Deputy Director May Be Headed to Grand Canyon NP
Although no offiicial announcement has been made, Steve Martin, currently a National Park Service Deouty Director, may be heading to the Grand Canyon to become that park's new superintendent. Steve served for approximately two years as Deputy Director in Washington, D.C. and was the superintendent of Grand Teton National Park previous to this position. Steve handled many duties as Deputy Director under Fran Mainella and was instrumental in compiling the revised edition of the NPS Management Policies.
Chairman of NPS Concessions Management Advisory Board to Resign Post
Allen Naille announced at the most recent meeting of the NPS Concessions Management Advisory Board, October 25th, that he will be stepping down as Chairman and will not continue to be part of the Advisory Board. Allen has been the Board Chairman since its inception in 1999. Allen has a long a distinguished career in concessions management and has done a superlative job in guiding the Board through a myriad of issues. NPHA wishes to extend our thanks for taking the helm of the Board and wishes him well in any future endeavors. A replacement has not yet been selected to fill the chariman's slot.
Park Service Director Resigns
To the surprise of many, including Park Service employees, Fran Mainella, National Park Service Director tendered her resignation to President Bush on July 27, 2006. She was the first woman to act as Park Service Director and has filled this position since 2000 after being appointed by Bush. Director Mainella cited family health problems, particulaly that of her parents, and a desire to pursue other opportunities as her primary reasons for the leaving the Park Service.
Director Mainella stated that she is proud of the opportunity she had to serve the American  people for the last six years. She is especially gratified to have developed a number of partnerships, to reduce the maintenance backlog of Park Service facilities, and to have successfully continued the Natural Resource Challenge. Fran was also responsible for steering the Park Service through some tumultuous times, particularly the terrorits attacks of 9/11 and the devasting natural disasters of the 2005 hurricane season.
No date certain has been set for her departure and Fran stated that she will leave "on a mutually agreeable date" beneficial to the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior. She would like the opportunity to finish a few important projects upcoming in the near future, such as the 90th Anniversary of the Park Service and the finalization of the 2006 Park Service Management Policies.
NPS Does an About-Face on 2006 Management Policies
On June 19, 2006 new Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, released the new (and probably final) version of National Park Service Draft Management Policies (2006 Draft). The first draft was released in November of 2005 (2005 Draft) and NPHA, along with many of our individual members, commented on them during the official public comment period. The 2005 Draft was a significant improvement over the 2001 NPS Management Policies constructed by the Clinton Administration. The 2005 Draft struck a much better and needed balance of the mandate set forth in the 1916 NPS Organic Act to conserve park resources for the enjoyment of the people, i.e., the park visitor. In fact, the 2005 Draft made it clear that the enjoyment of national parks was on equal footing with the conservation of the resources, as was the original intent of Congress.
Unfortunately, the 2006 Draft returns, with no uncertainty, back to and even reinforces the policies of the Clinton Administration’s position that conservation of resources is always predominant over the use of the resources by the visiting public. Thus, the 2006 Draft again severs the single mandate/dual mission of the Park Service to conserve the resources while providing the same for the enjoyment of the people.
This is especially troubling when applied in parks that have significant amounts of motorized recreation and are managing for soundscapes. Soundscapes are now considered by the NPS to be a natural resource to be managed just like any other natural, historic, or cultural resource. In short, the Park Service must assure that the "use" of this resource will not leave it impaired. The 2006 Draft makes it clear that when a conflict arises between the resource and the use of the park, the resource will always comes first. The 2006 Draft, lets this be known in no uncertain terms. In fact, the very first sentence of the 2006 Draft states that “[w]hen there is a conflict between conserving resources unimpaired for future generations, and their use, conservation will be predominant.” This sentence is used frequently throughout the document.
Because resources in all units in the Park System are to be treated the same, soundscapes, for example, in Yellowstone National Park are treated the same as those in, for example, Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Thus, it is not difficult to see that the Park Service is heading down a road that when a motorized recreational activity, like boating, interferes with a park visitor who desires quiet and solitude, the Park Service will move to curtail or even prohibit boating. This is exactly what has happened in the Grand Canyon in regard to air tour overflights in that national park. The air tour industry is still fighting for its business life as the Park Service keeps whittling away at it.
Although there is no formal comment period on 2006 Draft, the Park Service was accepting public comments throught July. However, this is not a formal public comment period and the Park Service is under no obligation to consider comments as they are in a formal comment period setting. The Park Service plans to finalize the 2006 some time in mid August, 2006.
House Passes FY 2007 Interior Appropriations Bill
On May 18, 2006 the House of Representatives passed the 2007 Fiscal Year Interior Appropriations Bill, H.R. 5386, by a vote of 293 to 198. The total House bill approves $25.9 billion for Department of the Interior spending compared to $26.1 billion enacted for FY 2006. Compared to other agencies within the Interior Department the National Park Service did not fare too badly. The House bill approved $1.754 billion for NPS operations ($1.72 billion for FY 2006), $599.8 million for NPS maintenace ($588 million for FY 2006), and $229.9 million for NPS construction ($313.9 million for FY 2006). This bill was sent to Senate who will begin consideration sometime in early June.
Of importance, H.R. 5386 also contains the de novo provision, which NPHA has been working hard to have striken from the bill. To refresh your memory, the de novo provision gives the Park Service an additional remedy to take a binding arbitration decision to Federal Claims Court if they disagree with that decision. The concessioner is not afforded this same opportunity. This runs completely counter to the 1998 law which clearly states that disputes dealing with possessory interest between the Park Service and concessioners shall be decided by binding arbitration and only binding arbitration. The de novo provision gives the Park Service "another bite of the apple", is patently unfair, and may even be unconstitutional in regard to due process of law. NPHA is still working to remove this provision and is hopeful that it will be striken from the bill.
Changes in Board of Directors Highlights 2006 Annual Meeting
On March 19, 2006 the NPHA membership met at the Madison Hotel in Washington, D.C. hosting the traditional reception to begin its 2006 Annual Meeting. The reception was very well-attended by NPHA members, personnel from the National Park Service, and other friends and member’s spouses. Also attending was Park Service Director, Fran Mainella, who welcomed NPHA to Washington and looked forward to talking with our members throughout the meeting. 
The Annual Meeting officially convened on March 20, 2006 and was called to order by Chairman of the Board, Andy Todd. After an invocation by Rev. Dick Camp, floor nominations were taken by the general membership from Ron Felty, Chairman of the Nomination Committee. Unlike past years’ nominations, this year had more candidates than slots open on the Board of Directors. This set the tone for surprising results at day’s end.
At the conclusion of the final voting, NPHA members chose Joe Fassler, from Glacier Parks, Inc., to be the new Chairman of the Board of Directors. Joe, who has been on the Board of Directors for many years, succeeds Andy Todd who steps down after eight years of great service as the Board Chairman of NPHA. We all owe Andy a debt of gratitude for his many years of hard work and sacrifice in guiding NPHA through some very tumultuous times. Although he conducted routine NPHA business extremely well, he was especially active in grappling with the problems with LSI and its conversion from possessory interest as mandated by the 1998 Concessions Act. We should all thank Andy, for his eight outstanding years as NPHA Chairman.
There were other changes to the Board of Directors besides the change in Chairmanship. Carol Metzler, of Gettysburg Tours, Inc., becomes a member of the Board as well as Ed Wimberly, of Lake Roosevelt Resort and Marina. Carol has also agreed to act as assistant treasurer pending the outcome the Blue & Gold Fleet decision will have on Ron Duckhorn, NPHA’s current treasurer.
Congratulations to Joe, Carol and Ed and we look forward to their energetic participation on the Board of Directors. Many NPHA members are very excited about Joe Fassler taking the helm of the association and having new representation on the Board of Directors. Dave Woodside, of Acadia Corp. and Pam Pitts, of California Parks Co., remain as officers on the Board as Vice Chairman and Secretary, respectively.
The Annual Meeting also featured a full slate of guest speakers who covered a variety of topics. Park Service Director, Fran Mainella led things off followed immediately by Deputy Director, Steve Martin. Both of them talked of the importance of concessioners to the Park Service and of working together in the future. They both also talked about the new 2006 Park Service Management Policies. Fran and Steve were followed by NPS Concessions Management Program Director, Jo Pendry who updated the membership on the status of the upcoming draft regulations and pending contracts, although the official prospectus updates were not available until the Park Service presented them at the Concessions Advisory Board meeting on
Wednesday, March 22nd.
Monday’s meeting concluded by having Alan Saltman give a general overview of the Blue & Gold Fleet situation and a presentation on the process of bid protesting and by having Rob Howarth, Staff Director of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation, and Public Lands give a report on any Congressional activity thus far in 2006. Rob reported that the Subcommittee Chairman, Steve Pearce from New Mexico, was very engaged in national park issues and was very aware of problems that face concessioners operating in national parks.
Bill Horn, attorney for Birch, Horton, Bittner, Cherot, led off Tuesday’s agenda by giving the membership an update on the status of the preferential right of contract renewal issue that effects many NPHA members. Bill was followed by Dr. Suzanne Cook, of the Travel Industry Association of America, who gave us an information-filled presentation on past and current trends of tourism in the United States with a focus on tourism to the national parks. Ron Tipton, Senior Vice President of the National Parks Conservation Association, then gave his organization’s perspective of the future of the national parks. Ron was followed by Dean Reader, the new Tourism Director for the Park Service, who explained the function of this office and how they can interact with concessioners.
Interspersed within the meeting, Jim Santini, general counsel for NPHA, and Tod Hull, Washington Representative for NPHA, gave updates on the legislative agenda for 2006, including striking the “de novo” amendment out of the 2007 Interior Appropriations bill and the importance of having a thriving PAC (Political Action Committee) to help push NPHA’s agenda along.
The Annual Meeting concluded Tueday, March 21, 2006 in the early afternoon.
NPHA Member Testifies in Front of Parks Subcommittee
On April 6, 2006 John Schoppmann, NPHA Member and Excecutive Vice President of Forever Resorts, testifyed at an oversight hearing held by the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation, and Pulbic Lands titled "Visitation Trends in the National Park Service". The subject of the hearing revolved around the decreasing visitation to our national parks and examined some of the reasons behind the deline in recreational visits. 
Mr. Schoppmann did a fabulous job in his first appearance before a Congressional Committee and gave many suggestions as to the why visitation to the parks is falling. Some of the reasons mentioned by Mr. Schoppmann include: 1) Negative Publicity by the Media. Frequently, the media will convey a message to the public that they should not visit because of fires, low water levels, or overcrowding when this simply is not the case. 2) Fee Stations. The continual drive of the Park Service to collect use fees may have had a negative impact on park visitors. 3) Declining Awareness. The positive message that the public gets, especially children and adolescents, seems to be on the wane. This, in turn, has had an impact on park visitation. 4) Natural Causes. Natural events, like the prolonged drought in the southwestern United States, keep people from enjoying many National Recreation Areas to their fullest extent.
John was joined at the witness table by Marsha Blaszak and Pat Hooks, NPS Regional Directors of the Alaska and Southeast Region respectively, Dr. Suzanne Cook, Senior VP of Research for the Travel Industry Association of America, Mike Cerletti, Secretary of Tourism for the State of New Mexico, Bob Warren, General Manager of Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association, and Scott Ahlsmith, Chairman of the Travel Institute.
Some excerpts from John's testimony follows: (All the testimony can be read at http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/archives/109/nprpl/040606.htm)
"After peaking some years ago, recreational visitation to the national parks has declined or, at the very best, remained flat. Although the visitation for any particular year may have increased or decreased, the general trend in recreational visits is declining. Furthermore, this decline is coming despite an increase in park units and an ever-increasing National Park Service budget.
"From 1999 through 2005, Congress added 12 units to the national park system and increased the size of many more existing park units. In the same time period, the Park Service budget increased approximately 35%. One would assume and logic would dictate that with more park units in the system and with a substantial increase in budget that visitation to our parks would be rising from 1999 through 2005. However, this is not the case. During these same years, recreational visits to national parks has fallen nearly 8%, based on a Park Service forecast for 2005. This decrease in recreational visits causes us great concern and we hope, through the work of Congress, the Administration, and concessioners, that these trends can be reversed.
Declines in park unit visits are also occurring in many of our premier national park units. Data supplied by the National Park Service shows that declines have occurred in: Grand Canyon National Park – 4.1 million visits in 2003 projected to be 3.7 million in 2005, a 10% drop; Yellowstone National Park – 3 million visits in 2003 projected to be 2.9 in 2005, a 4% drop; Yosemite National Park – 3.4 million visits in 2003 projected to be 3.3 million in 2005, a 3% drop; Everglades National Park – just over 1 million visits in 2003 projected to be 988,000 in 2005, a 2% drop; and finally Great Smoky Mountains National Park – 9.4 million visits in 2003 projected to be 8.6 million in 2005, almost a 10% drop. The list goes on and on. In fact, when looking at data for the entire park system, almost half of all the national park units are projected to experience declines this year from 2003. The implications of this data causes us great concern.
"Another factor that must be looked at is the international visitor, who used to make up a significant portion of national park visits. According to the Global Insight Forecast of the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, visitors from countries who we typically would see in national parks is down significantly from 2000 to 2005. In particular, visitor arrivals from the United Kingdom is down 8%, from Italy – down 11%, from France – down 19%, from Germany – down 21%, and from Japan – down a whopping 23%. This may be for a number of reasons: the United States has an image problem world-wide, the United States doesn’t promote well overseas, and many people avoid U.S. air carriers. In fact, 57% of Japanese, 42% of French, and 38% of the UK avoid flying U.S. air carriers (GMI World Poll, The Pew Center for People & the Press). Clearly, we need to look at our marketing strategy in order to pull the international visitor back into the United States.
"Adding to the problem, Americans have many more recreational choices now than they have had in the past. There are more theme parks, hotels with water parks in them, and casinos seem to be springing up everywhere – all vying for the tourism dollar. These places, and many others, draw people away from visiting national parks. We believe that the federal government must do a better job of marketing this country and our national parks not only to the international visitor, but to our own citizens as well.
"The federal government needs not only to advertise and market the national parks better, they also need to use available technology to draw more visitors into the parks. For example, I-pods and similar devices are used by millions of people, especially the younger crowd. The Park Service should be responding to this heavily-used technology and could be using devices like these as part of their interpretive and other programs. We believe that this would have great appeal to the younger park visitors and, hopefully, would have them coming back to visit the national parks again and again."
NPS Concessions Advisory Board Meets in Washington,D.C.
The National Park Service Concessions Advisory Board met in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, March 22, 2006 to discuss a full slate of issues. The meeting was called to order by Chairman of the Board, Allen Naille, introductions were made, and the meeting got underway with NPS Concessions Program Manager, Jo Pendry, assisting.
Because the Advisory Board recommendations on Leasehold Surrender Interest (LSI) will eventually become the new regulations implementing the 1998 National Parks Omnibus Management Act (Concessions Act), Chick Fagan gave an overview of the federal regulatory process as to how things become regulations. This was followed by a presentation of LSI by Geoff Baekey, of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Baekey explained how LSI would be tracked, how asset crediting would occur, and how LSI would be allocated.
Tracking of LSI would done by the NPS using a new tracking system/tool which would track LSI crediting, estimate depreciation, and make adjustments for inflation. Information accumulated by the NPS from the tracking tool would be very valuable to the concessioner, however a decision on the use of this information has not yet been made. Crediting of LSI would be based on source of funds and include things such as CFIP(Concessions Facility Improvement Program) projects, CPI (Consumer Price Index) adjustments, and other projects approved by the Park Service and funded by the concessioner. LSI valuation would be offset by physical depreciation. LSI allocations would be based on facility condition assessments and would be performed at the Uniformat II Level II and Level III.
Of note, the new regulations would eliminate the "50% Rule" as far as crediting LSI. However, any improvements made before the regulations become final would be credited using the 50% Rule. After the regulations are finalized concessioners will need to amend their contracts to assure that they would now fall under the new regulations. The new regulations would also provide for LSI allocation on a building by building and building component basis. The draft regulations should be promulgated by May or June, 2006.
Kathy Fleming, from the NPS Washington Office, then gave a concessions contracting status update. The updates are now posted on the NPS Concessions Program webpage at: http://concessions.nps.gov/news.cfm. Next, the Regional Concessions Cheifs gave their updates as to status of the concessions program in their region which was followed by Wendy Behrman,also of the NPS Washington Office who gave a presentation on the status of SERA, the Standards, Evalution and Rate Approval program. The NPS will begin a SERA Pilot Study in two or three parks in order to validate the updated standards, to identify any concerns with its application, and to solicit concessioner and park service comments on its effectiveness. Although no set date was given, the SERA Pilot Study should be starting soon. Wendy Berhman also gave a report on the Superintendent's Training Project. This training should serve the concessioners well as park superintendents become more knowledgable about concessions operations.
An update by Bob Hyde, of the NPS, was made on the Electronic Annual Financial Report. This report gives the concessioner the opportunity to file financial reports electronically, hence, eliminates filling out pages and pages of paper reports. Electronic filing is not mandatory and concessioners who favor the old paper filing system can still do so. The meeting concluded with a presentation by Peter Fondry on the Human Capital Strategy followed by Kathy Fleming's report on Interim Commercial Use Authorization Regulations.
National Park Service Releases Budget for FY 2007
On February 6, 2006 the National Park Service, through the Department of the Interior, released their proposed budget for fiscal year 2007. The budget for the Park Service has continually risen and this year's budget is no exception. In fact, the Park Service is one of the few domestic bureaus that has received increased funding, even as the Bush Administration tightens its belt and reduces the funding levels for other domestic spending. Funding for NPS base operations has increased by $177 million or 19 percent since 2001.
The Bush Administration has proposed an FY 2007 budget request of $2.2 billion and includes a $1.7 billion request for National Park Service Operations. This is an increase of $23.4 million over the 2006 enacted level of funding.
"This budget request builds on the President's strong commitment to preserving America's national parks and sprecial places," stated Fran Mainella, Director of the Park Service. "This request combines fiscal prudence with innovative management approaches and business pactices to increase funding for some critical programs such as visitor services and safety, as well as strengthen our natural and cultural resource stewardship programs."
The funding level of $1.7 billion for park operations represents an increase of $20.6 million over the 2006 level enacted by Congress. These increases will improve park interpretive ranger programs, visitor center staffing, and daily maintenance activties. The budget request increases are also targeting enhancements to visitor health and safety programs, along with underscoring law enforcement and park police activities.
The FY 2007 budget request increases the Bush Administration's emphasis on reducing the deferred maintenance backlog and increases by $10 million the NPS cyclic maintenance program. This results in a total funding of $393.5 million for facility maintenance and combines with a total of $229.3 million for facility construction.
In addition, the Park Service is in the process of transfoming its approach its asset management program. This new approach will focus on developing a comprehensive inventory and condition assessment on its nearly 18,000 buildings and 15,000 miles of roads. The condition assessments will follow known industry standards and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2006. The Park Service has also completed a prioritization of thier assest inventory - part of a new asset management software system. These tools give the Park Service a better and more complete understanding of the assets they hold and will help them manage recurring operational costs.
NPS Draft Management Policies - 2006
The National Park Service has issued a draft of their management policies and requested public comment on changes or suggestions to these policies. The public comments are due by February 18, 2006. This important document guides the Park Service in managing the entire national park system - all of its 388 units including national parks, national battlefields, national historic sites, and national seashores just to name a few.
It was clear from the 2001 Management Policies that the NPS was attempting to sever the dual and equal mandate of the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 to protect park resources while also providing such resources for the enjoyment of the people. This was especially evident in the continuous restrictions to park access placed on many user groups who had enjoyed recreational activities within our national parks including snowmobiles, personal watercraft, and horseback riding, among others. In fact, there has been a downward trend in park visitation over the last few years and it is not surprising to see that the restrictions placed on selected user groups have greatly contributed to the decreasing park visitation.
NPHA supports a balance between visitor use and enjoyment and park resource protection as mandated by the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916. Although at times difficult to achieve, the balance between visitor enjoyment and resource protection should be the fundamental principle behind all NPS policies and decisions. We believe that these Draft Management Policies move in a direction to better strike this balance and, thus, conform to the original intent of the Congress when the NPS was established in 1916. Movement in this direction will better serve the American public and international visitors to our National Parks while adequately and appropriately protecting the resources for which these parks were established.
In a related development, PEER, the Public Employees for Environmental Ethics, known for radical environmental views, filed a lawsuit on February 2, 2006, seeking records and documents of outdoor industry involvement in the development of the NPS draft management policies. Using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as their vehicle, PEER claims that the Department of the Interior has withheld documents from them exposing possible outdoor industry influence in the crafting of the draft management policies. PEER asserts that documents they asked for four months ago have yet to be provided by the Interior Department. |
