Visitor Planning - CHMGS Launches NPS and State Park Opening Status Maps
Providing ideas and insight that can inform agency and partner strategies for improvement of park, recreation and hospitality operations and assets.
Improving Visitor Planning
As public agencies work to re-open and manage potential future re-closures due to spikes in COVID-19 infections, public agency managers need to understand how visitors think about and plan for trips.
Visitor Trip Planning
When visitors are ready to travel, they want clear, concise, and easily available information about what is open, how to book, and what on-site conditions will be. Currently, many state and federal web sites are not providing clear, concise information in a central location.
In today’s digital age, visuals are a powerful strategy to communicate parks’ open/closed status.
Identifying WHICH features are open (e.g., trails, day-use, overnight) and using common language (e.g., Open, Partially Open, Closed) is exceptionally important.
Keeping data updated (with date stamps) so visitors trust the accuracy of the data is key.
Aggregating data in one location is crucial for travel planning.
CHMGS Launches State and National Park Opening Status Page
To support travel planning, and to illustrate the power of centralization of data, CHMGS has created a one-stop location for entities to identify the status of state and national parks openings. CHMGS commits to updating this site weekly through Labor Day to help visitors understand the status parks’ open/closed status. CHMGS thanks Lily Bailey for creation of the NPS Opening Status Map. Ms. Bailey was inspired by and built upon similar work by Isaac Perper.
What can you and your webmaster do to improve the quality of trip planning for your potential visitors?
