Park Service reaches out for tourism, visitation help

By Leon Stafford

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia destinations like the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and Cumberland Island National Seashore are getting some promotion help.

The National Park Service, which oversees operations of 66 parks and historic sites in the southeast, and the Southeast Tourism Society will formally join forces today to push park visitation by entering into a "memorandum of understanding."

The "agreement," which does not commit either party to any money, is an effort by the park service to partner with organizations to better tell the stories of America's destination treasures from the mountains to the seas, said Chris Abbett, NPS assistant regional director/partnerships. The group will help the park service market the destinations to drive up visitation and bring them to the attention of tourism society members.

The need is there.

Hundreds of thousands visit the nation's parks annually, but those numbers have been declining over the past decade, officials said.  The park service, trying to reacquaint the public with the destinations, offered free admission to visitors twice this past summer. And leaders are especially worried about young adult visitation, which has been low as today's youth eschews the parks for computers and text messaging.

And visitation has impact not just on the parks, but the economic vitality of the communities that serve them, said Bill Hardman, president and chief operating officer of the Southeast Tourism Society. Attendance is also important to the sustainability of the parks because visitors stress the need for continued funding and support.

Abbett said urban sites run by the park did better this past summer than distant counterparts like Yellowstone, perhaps because of "staycations" and also because of documentary producer Ken Burns' "The National Parks: America's Best Ideas" series.

Visiting Yellowstone National Park or Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, is more than trees and mounuments, but stories about the men and women behind their designation, Abbett said, alluding to Burns' series.

And Hardman said the partnership with the park service makes sense for the Southeast Tourism Society because the southeast has the biggest NPS jewel of them all: Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

"It's the most visited national park in the country," he said.