 If the National Park Service wants more visitation as they claim, then they could do as has just been done at
Australia's Brett Whiteley Studio — (see appended article).
If the National Park Service wants lower visitation, then they can continue to raise their fees, as they are doing
and as had frequently been proposed as a mechanism for reducing visitation when managers were worried that visitors were "loving the parks to death."
I've recently been exploring the issue of Museum Entrance Fees and discover that
researchers the world over have established the predictable correlation between fees
and visitation. Raise the fees and visitation falls. Lower the fees and
visitation rises. Eliminate the fees and visitation soars.
Surprisingly, Federal land management agencies in the United States have not merely failed to find this correlation — they actively deny that it exists.
Must be something unique about those land managers ... or so I would
suppose.
Scott
PS... Unlike the privately owned Whiteley museum, America's National Parks are publicly owned and should not be required to survive upon the kindness of volunteers, the largess of corporate sponsors and exclusionary user fees. Public parks need public support — support denied them for far too long.
---begin quoted---
April 19, 2007
Fees out of frame sits well with Whiteley
By Rosalie Higson
The Brett Whiteley Studio, one of the Australia's smaller, more
atmospheric museums, has scrapped admission fees as part of a drive to
reveal Australia's cultural heritage to the widest possible audience.
The move, which means the Sydney studio forgoes $7 whenever anyone
crosses the threshold, is seen as central to the debate over free
access to some of the nation's finest art collections. It has been made
possible by a sponsorship deal with merchant bankers JP Morgan.
"When the Government is not really big on funding the arts, then
sponsorship is invaluable," said Wendy Whiteley, Brett's widow,
yesterday at the studio.
The correlation between entrance fees and attendances at public museums and galleries has always been contentious.
Although public galleries need funds, members of the public are seen to
have a right to free access. Experience has shown that when entrance
fees are abolished, crowds increase.
Edmund Capon, head of the Art Gallery of NSW, which manages the
Whiteley studio, predicted that would happen to the studio, which has
drawn upwards of 10,000 visitors each year since its opening in 1995.
"I predict crowds will double or even triple," he said.
"It's taken 12 years to get into this position. There was a big debate
a few years ago, when the then-premier, Mr (Nick) Greiner, said 'user
pays'."
After a year-long stand-off, Mr Capon prevailed and the gallery remained free to the public.
"Our job is to get people in," he said. "I've always firmly believed in free access, and this is an echo of that battle."
The Whiteley studio - a two-storey former warehouse in the inner-city
suburb of Surry Hills - was Whiteley's home, workplace, and exhibition
space from 1985 until he died from a heroin overdose in 1992.
Wendy Whiteley said she was delighted by the sponsorship.
She has been hands-on at the studio since the early days, from organising exhibitions to sweeping floors.
"It's not a dusty, fusty museum," she said. "It keeps alive the spirit
of the artist. Personally, we had some hard times while he was here; we
were getting a divorce. But I always forgave him, probably because he
was such a great artist."
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- Land management 
