Billings, Mont. — A $100 per person fee on foreigners entering Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and other popular national parks is raising concerns among some tourism-oriented businesses that it could discourage travelers, but supporters say the change would generate money for cash-strapped parks.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the new fees Tuesday and will take effect Jan. 1. Foreign tourists will also see a sharp increase in annual park pass prices, to $250 per vehicle. US residents will continue to be charged $80 for the Annual Pass.
The change in policy brings the United States in line with other countries that charge foreigners more to see popular sights.
At the Whistling Swan Hotel outside Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana, owner Mark Hauser estimates about 15 percent of his customers are foreigners. They come from Canada, China, India, Spain, France, Germany and elsewhere, said Hauser, who also runs a bakery and general store.
These visitors already pay up to $35 per vehicle to enter the park. Adding a $100 per person fee for foreigners “is a surefire way to discourage people from visiting the glacier,” Hauser said.
“This will hurt local businesses that cater to foreign travelers, like me,” he said. “You’re discouraging them from seeing something in the country by attaching a fee to that experience.”
Yellowstone tour operator Brian Batchelder of Let’s Go Adventure Tours and Transportation said the fees represent a “pretty significant hike” for about 30% of his foreign clients. This percentage has risen in recent years after Batchelder switched to a new booking service.
He said that next summer will reveal how the new fees will be applied among foreign visitors. “Maybe they will keep coming to the country, but will they visit the national parks?” Batchelder asked.
Fees will also apply in Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain and 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 the parks.
For Yellowstone Park alone, the $100 fee could generate $55 million annually to help repair deteriorating trails and aging bridges, said Brian Yablonsky of the Center for Property and Environmental Research, a free-market research group based in Bozeman, Montana.
If the fee on foreigners were expanded to theme park locations across the country, it could generate more than $1 billion from an estimated 14 million international visitors annually, Yablonsky said.
“Americans actually pay more than international visitors because they pay taxes,” Yablonsky said. “For international visitors, this is kind of a commonsense, no-brainer approach.”
Many other countries charge additional fees for international visitors to visit public sites, said Melissa Wedel, director of the University of Montana’s Tourism and Recreation Research Institute. For example, foreign visitors to Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands pay $200 per adult, while Ecuadorian citizens pay just $30, according to the islands’ tourism websites.
A coalition of current and former Park Service employees denounced the new charge.
“In a year in which national park staffing has already been reduced by approximately 25%, we are concerned that this will be another burden on already overworked employees,” said Emily Thompson, executive director of the Alliance to Protect America’s National Parks.
“National parks must be accessible and available to everyone, otherwise the best idea in America will become America’s greatest shakedown,” she said.
Trump and his administration have worked for nearly a year to undermine the park service, cut its budget and fire thousands of employees, said Jerry Sifo James, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All campaign.
“Extorting foreign tourists at the gate of entry will not provide the financial support these crown jewels of our public lands need. Without this support, we risk our true common grounds becoming nothing more than playgrounds for the super-rich,” he said.
Interior Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Pace said the agency had not previously collected data on international visitors but would begin doing so in January.
Republican lawmakers in July introduced a bill to Congress that would legalize surcharges on foreign visitors to national parks. It is sponsored by West Virginia Representative Riley Moore and Montana Representative Ryan Zinke, who served as Secretary of the Interior during Trump’s first term.
“President Trump and Secretary Burgum are putting Americans first by requiring foreign visitors to pay their fair share while keeping admission fees flat for the American people,” Zinke and Moore said in a statement on Wednesday.
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Daly reported from Washington, D.C