Yosemite, local tourism discussed

Yosemite's visitation increased 6 percent for 2007 to 3.6 million

By David Richards

(Updated: Wednesday, March 19, 2008, 5:46 PM)

Yosemite National Park and the state of regional tourism were the featured topics at the sixth annual Partners in Tourism dinner Thursday, hosted by the Yosemite Sierra Visitors Bureau and held at the Episcopal Conference Center Oakhurst.

More than 70 local residents, business owners and county officials were greeted at the event by displays promoting the Yosemite Sierra Visitors Bureau and Robbins Photography.

Robbins Photography owner Nancy Robbins is the featured cover photographer of the 2008 Yosemite Sierra Visitors Guide.

The keynote speaker for the evening was Mike Tollefson, who has been the superintendent at Yosemite National Park since January, 2003.

"Yosemite's incredibly awe inspiring," Tollefson said at the beginning of his speech. "And the falls as you can imagine this year are flowing wonderfully."

Tollefson added that among the key goals park officials have for Yosemite are improving visitor experience, improving community relations, improving the park's image and moving forward with a variety of projects.

He said park visitation was up 6 percent last year to 3.6 million visitors and highlighted that about half were return visitors to Yosemite and half were experiencing the park for the first time.

He also included some of the improvements made during his tenure, including the renovation of the one-mile Yosemite Falls Trail; the removal of the Cascades Diversion Dam at highways 120 and 140; the replacement of all park service buses with hypoelectric diesels, reducing emissions by 90 percent; and the replacing of the South Fork bridge.

"The new bridge is beautiful and provides better access," he said.

Tollefson mentioned accessibility often Thursday, and how it has improved as a whole in Yosemite.

For example, heavy doors in the valley can now be accessed by the push of a button.

"We spent about $3.5 million to improve accessibility in the park just in the last year and a half," he said. "We've moved forward in a lot of ways."

Park officials are also continuing planning efforts, as they go forward with the Tuolumne Wild and Scenic River Plan and are in the process of redoing the Merced River Plan for a third time.

Tollefson said they are also looking to improve the facilities that host 13,000 kids each year in the park through the educational program known as the Yosemite Institute.

He didn't stop there.

The superintendent said park officials have gone after a grant to pay for better counters in the park, in an effort to gather more accurate count information of vehicles entering the park and determining which visitors are there for leisure, which are there for deliveries and which are there for business.

Tollefson also discussed the Ferguson Rockslide, located near El Portal on Highway 140.

He said the park has seen a 30 percent increase in the cost of doing business because of delivery trucks having to go around the slide and use the Highway 41 entrance.

The slide area is still accessible to limited traffic, and the superintendent said it will be some time before a permanent solution is found.

"The reality is, that road will be open for regular traffic around 2013," he said. "No time tomorrow."

In the near future, Tollefson said park officials are looking at ways to repave parts of Highway 41 as the portion of the highway through the park is in rough shape.

He also added a need to be more aggressive in reaching out to all of the gateway communities as well.

Park survey

Tollefson closed his address by discussing the Yosemite National Park Visitor Use Survey, which was done in 2005 and again this past winter.

The results of the latest survey are not yet available, but the complete results of the 2005 survey are available at www.nps.gov/archive/yose/nature/2005survey.pdf.

The survey was conducted from July 8-17, 2005, where 1,326 visitors groups were selected from all five entrance stations. Eighty one percent of respondents rated the value of the $20 entrance fee as "very good" or "good."

"This is a great place," Tollefson said. "I love working with all of you and getting involved with all of the gateway communities."

Tollefson was followed up by Bill Putnam, president of the Yosemite Sierra Visitors Bureau.

Putnam stated that there are 148 members of the partners in tourism throughout Madera County, and the visitors bureau also features 44 volunteers who have combined to provide 4,285 volunteer hours for 2007 alone.

"Some of these people have been with us for 15 years," he said.

Putnam also emphasized the past work of Dan Carter, former executive director of the Yosemite Sierra Visitors Bureau, who stepped down from the position earlier this year.

"As a result of Dan's efforts, we are known throughout the state and actually throughout the nation," he said.

Putnam added the bureau's Web site is also increasing in popularity, averaging 12,267 hits per month.

He also said the bureau's board will be taking its time in finding a new executive director.

"We are going to take our time to find someone who can walk in Dan's shoes and that's going to be a tough task," Putnam said. "We are going to miss Dan, but we appreciate the job he did for us."

Putnam closed by thanking those in attendance.

"Without you, the visitors bureau would be nothing," he said.