Marketing, congestion, and demarketing in Utah’s National Parks

Abstract

Utah’s Mighty 5 ad campaign was designed to attract out-of-state visitors to southern Utah’s five National Parks (NPs). Using the synthetic control method, we find the campaign to have contributed to rapid visitation growth at Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef NPs. No ad campaign effect was found for Bryce Canyon and Zion NPs, which implies that recent increased visitation at these parks has been driven by the national trends and not the Mighty 5 promotion. Arches, Bryce Canyon, and Zion currently suffer from excess demand (congestion), and the US National Park Service is actively engaged in visitor management efforts to mitigate the environmental pressures associated with overvisitation. The state has responded to congestion by crafting a new “demarketing” campaign to provide a more tailored tourism experience aimed at increasing the value of a visit and diverting potential tourists to high-quality alternative sites selected to match visitor interests.