MAMMOTH CAVE NATIONAL PARK, Ky.-
Mammoth Cave National Park is the longest cave in the world, offering family-oriented tours year-round, in a location that is easily driven to from many states.
But attendance at the national park has been falling for 13 years, and officials are trying to figure out why.
Deputy Park Superintendent Bruce Powell told The Courier-Journal that officials are analyzing their first comprehensive visitor survey in a decade, hoping to find a way to put an end to the slide in visitors.
The number of visitors fell from 566,185 in 1992 to 347,357 last year–a decline of 39 percent that had followed a nine-year rise. Last year’s numbers are only about half what the park experienced in 1973, its peak.
Powell said he hopes the survey will provide clues for attracting more visitors to the park, which draws about three-quarters of the park’s guests come from Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, often just passing through.
The drop comes as federal officials are seeing a 5 percent decline in national park visitors nationwide since 1998.
Mike Adams, who oversees visitor services at Mammoth Cave, is concerned about the long-term effects of people not spending time in national parks, especially a lack of appreciation for nature.
“The kids have day-planners now,” Adams said.
David Barna, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said even some of the iconic Western parks, like Yosemite and Yellowstone, which have struggled with overcrowding, have seen a drop in visitors.
But parks such as Independence National Historic Site in Philadelphia and Gettysburg in southeastern Pennsylvania–both of which are closer to metropolitan areas–have seen an uptick in attendance.
