Foreign visitors will now pay a lot more to visit US national parks

International visitors will now have to pay triple the price for an annual US national parks pass from New Year’s Day onwards, as part of an "America First" policy, the US Department of the Interior announced on Wednesday. 

The annual pass - renamed "America the Beautiful" - will continue to cost $80 for American residents, but increase to $250 for nonresidents. 

In addition, visitors without an annual pass will pay an additional $100 per person, in addition to the standard entrance fee, to enter 11 of the most visited national parks. 

This means an international family of four will pay $480 for access to Grand Canyon National Park starting on 1 January, instead of the current $80 entry fee.

Other parks with additional $100 fees include Acadia National Park; Bryce Canyon National Park; Everglades National Park; Glacier National Park; Grand Teton National Park; Rocky Mountain National Park; Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks; Yellowstone National Park; Yosemite National Park; and Zion National Park.

In addition, the 10 fee-free days per year that previously allowed everyone who visited a park to enter without paying will now be a privilege available only to US citizens and permanent residents. Everybody else will be expected to pay.

Fee-free days include Presidents’ Day, Flag Day and President Trump's birthday, among others.

Around 13.3 million international visitors included national parks as part of their trip to the US in 2018, according to data from the US Travel Association - more than a third of total visitors that year.

Layoffs

In a press release, the Department of the Interior announced it was “implementing America-first entry fee policies. US residents will continue to enjoy affordable pricing, while nonresidents will pay a higher rate to help support the care and maintenance of America’s parks”.  

In a statement, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said that “President Trump’s leadership always puts American families first. 

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“These policies ensure that US taxpayers, who already support the National Park System, continue to enjoy affordable access, while international visitors contribute their fair share to maintaining and improving our parks for future generations.” 

According to the national parks website, the system encompasses 433 national park sites spanning more than 85 million acres, including parks in every state and territories such as Puerto Rico. Of these, 63 sites include “National Park” in their proper name, and it is these 63 sites that the fees will apply to.

The fee restructuring comes after thousands of national park service employees were laid off in February this year, and additional proposed cuts were announced in October.

There have been concerns that the gutting of national park employees will jeopardise national park sites. 

Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s lands protection programme, expressed concern in a public statement in October that the cuts to federal agencies would “serve corporate polluters".

“The American people will ultimately pay the price for these planned layoffs at Interior,” Manuel said. “From national parks to wildlife refuges, staff at agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service protect and preserve our shared natural heritage. The Trump administration is deliberately hollowing out the federal agencies charged with safeguarding our environment to serve the corporate polluters who see our public lands as something to exploit, not protect."