Marketing Zion Canyon

There was a marketing campaign that was put out over the course of the last 10 years specifically to raise awareness among American citizens of the benefits of the national Parks that are located throughout the U.S. The reason that this was necessary was that for the last half century there has been a decline steadily in the amount of tourist traffic that visits the national Parks all over the country. In the fifties when Americans were first experimenting with using automobiles to travel to tourist destinations, the attendance rates and national Parks was at its high point. Every year hundreds of thousands of people visited the spaces that were protected from development by the Federal government. The money that went through the Federal programs to these areas in order to maintain them was offset by the attendance fees that tourists would pay at the entrances to the Parks. Even though the national park system was never designed to be a money-making operation for the Federal government, some view it that way. They believe that if the amount of money that is brought in by tourism is not offset completely with regards to the Federal funds that are received, then the area should be sold off to private industry for development. Naturally, this threat becomes far worse and whenever those who have a vested interest in in private industry owning these types of land areas are in power, and there have been more than a few times when the survival of national Parks becomes questionable. Luckily, such disasters were avoided recently with regards to the falling attendance rates through the use of a marketing campaign that once again raise awareness of the beauty of these national treasures. As more people became aware that they existed, more people began to visit them. Some Parks benefited more than others, with the areas like Zion Canyon show in huge increases in attendance while others only saw moderate levels of increase. The main reason for the boosts that Zion saw in tours are was due to the proximity to Las Vegas. The city is located only two and half hours from the park, and every year hundreds of thousands of tourists come from Las Vegas also wishing to see some of the beautiful and wide open spaces that exist outside of the city. Since Zion Canyon is one of the closest national Parks to the city, and it can be reached in only a few hours of driving, several tour companies have specialized in providing tour packages from Las Vegas to Zion Canyon. The best tours will generally use Zion as the first stop and also visit several other national Parks in the same trip, providing the ability to camp overnight in several of the national Parks in between visits. Careful planning of the trip can provide a wonderful experience that visits Zion and several other national Parks in one trip, minimizing the amount of driving time in between.