Visitor Services Staff Perceptions of Strategies to Encourage Diversity at Two Urban National Parks

Abstract

 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: As the U.S. becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, the National Park Service (NPS) is challenged to overcome the disparity in visitation between racial and ethnic minorities and White visitors. The NPS has developed several strategies to help overcome the disparity in visitation including promoting use of urban national park units. The purpose of this study was to explore NPS visitor services staff perceptions toward efforts to increase racial and ethnic diversity at two urban national park units. During the summer of 2010, in-depth interviews were conducted with a range of staff from superintendent down to frontline staff with visitor services responsibilities at two National Parks close to urban centers. Three themes emerged from the data. The first theme, youth engagement beyond threshold experiences, describes whether targeted programs primarily meant for local youth were an effective means to make lifelong park visitors. The second theme, NPS traditional and organizational culture, describes whether the organizational culture of the NPS influenced visitor diversity strategies. The last theme, talking the talk, describes some of the perceived struggles related to adequate funding and training to implement visitor diversity programs. The results from the study showed that the employees at these parks have a desire to increase visitor diversity. The results suggested that for visitor diversity strategies to be successful the NPS should plan programs that promote long-term relationships with youth and diverse communities, employ more non-traditional methods, and devote resources and support from upper management within the NPS. Further research is needed to help the NPS negotiate organizational constraints that affect strategies to encourage greater visitor diversity.