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A strange thing is happening. A growing number of individuals and organizations linked to the travel-tourism industry are openly making the connection between declining participation in outdoor recreation and increased recreation fees charged for the use of the Great Outdoors. This may, or may not, be a good thing.
Have a look at this quote from the appended news release:
[ For months now we've been hearing about the decline in visitors and higher fees to USA public lands. Why isn't the great outdoors so great anymore?
The Centers for Disease Control reports a 30 percent drop in youth participation in outdoor activities over the past 10 years. Since 1999 recreational visits to our national parks have been declining, with overnight stays down 16 percent, and tent backcountry camping down nearly 20 percent. Federal studies in many states show the first decline in 20 years to our national forests. ]
The recreation industry is in a panic. Fewer visitors mean declining profits. It also means that THEIR efforts over the past many years have backfired.
A decade ago, the recreation and travel tourism industries all but took control of America's public lands recreation policy with the passage of their Recreation Fee Demonstration Program. Fee-demo launched a pay-to-play management paradigm and with it, a radical transformation of the very nature of outdoor recreation. Fees were not implemented for revenue generation. The purpose of fee-demo was to bring the profit motive to outdoor recreation management so that experiences could be packaged, marketed and sold to paying customers. The expectation of the recreation industry was that their profits would rise as undeveloped recreation yielded to Disneyfied Wreckreation. They erred and we, the people, have been paying the price ever since.
In the span of just one decade, these new policies have transformed millions upon millions of former forest visitors and public lands enthusiasts into people who actively AVOID traveling to, and dealing with, their public lands. In just 10 years, a "crisis" has been created --- a crisis that the RECREATION INDUSTRY is now dealing with.
In the months and years ahead the recreation industry will acknowledge to a growing degree the crisis that has manifest itself in the form of declining visitation to America's once-great outdoors. The recreation industry's solution will NOT, however, be a pleasing one. The recreation industry's solution will be to call upon their public-land management "partners" to bite even more deeply into the "Corporate Takeover of Nature" apple.
Unless those who have long appreciated their public lands rise up and actively oppose the recreation industry's efforts to dominate public policy, the transformation which has been in process for the past decade will almost certainly go from bad to worse.
Fees are NOT the issue.
Fees are, however, central to everything.
Scott
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Travel Website Focused on Rural Outdoor Recreation
Not all travel websites focus on large metro destinations. Social
networking message boards for rural outdoors adventure recreation.
Cedar City, UT, July 31, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Social Networking for
Wilderness Areas, Parks, Monuments and Outdoors Recreation at
AdventureZoneTOURS.
Most travel websites are focused on the large metro areas in the United
States. One website has a different twist and is unique to have all the
National Parks, State Parks, National Monuments and Wilderness Areas in
one place, no more clicking and searching all around.
For months now we've been hearing about the decline in visitors and
higher fees to USA public lands. Why isn't the great outdoors so great
anymore?
The Centers for Disease Control reports a 30 percent drop in youth
participation in outdoor activities over the past 10 years. Since 1999
recreational visits to our national parks have been declining, with
overnight stays down 16 percent, and tent backcountry camping down
nearly 20 percent. Federal studies in many states show the first
decline in 20 years to our national forests.
AdventureZoneTOURS is trying to make a difference and provide a social
networking space for people who love the outdoors, and groups to share
information about the unique parks and public lands that the USA has to
offer. The Outdoor Adventure Message Board opens up to a listing of
U.S. States separated into state travel region message boards where
people can see the outdoor areas available with map, information,
stories and photos with over 4,000 posts. You’ll find links to park
maps, webcams, get directions and much more.
The website has just started to contact rural small business owners
that provide accommodations and activities in these remote back country
locations to include them in the database. Many of these remote guides
and providers are hard to find on the internet and when added to the
website will make planning outdoor rural travel a bit easier for
families. Help is still needed in adding message board posts and trip
reports to many of the state parks and wilderness areas. Outdoor clubs
and organizations are invited to participate.
In a recent trend, volunteering has become very popular with more
people willing to offer their time or vacation in assisting the parks
and outdoor organizations with clean up, rebuilding trails and other
important tasks. AdventureZoneTOURS.com not only features a message
board for each region of every state but under the category Special
Interests, users are invited to post messages for volunteer
opportunities or find links to the volunteer opportunity just right for
them.
Bob Therrien, President of TrainingPASS Sales, Inc., creator of
AdventureZoneTOURS.com, outdoor writer, and constant traveler
commented, “Over the years, the hardest part for me has been the
research about which parks, hikes, climbs, guides I want to visit with
my family and friends. Exploring site after site, then mapping the
distance from each area of interest is inefficient and many times
lacking in information. To solve that inefficiency we
(AdventureZoneTOURS.com) have collected all the basic information about
our parks, wilderness areas and national monuments into one website.
The USA states are seperated into travel regions, so that a visitor can
visually see just a region of a state and distances between multiple
areas of interest.
AdventureZoneTOURS.com is an outdoors recreation message board that now
needs real trip reports from people who love these parks and are
willing to share information on their special places.”
For the activity-specific minded, AdventureZoneTOURS.com encourages
users and travel suppliers to share trip reports for the variety of
outdoor activities.
To research or share your favorite adventure travel location,
accommodations, rentals, tours, and for more information, log on to
www.AdventureZoneTOURS.com.
###
Contact Information
TrainingPASS Sales Corp.
Bob Therrien
435 267-2206
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
http://www.adventurezonetours.com
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