Sharp lower in Yosemite Nationwide Park tourism highlights COVID-19 financial influence | Information

The number of recreational visitors to Yosemite National Park fell by almost half in 2020 to 2.26 million. This corresponds to a decrease of 48.7% compared to 2019, when 4.42 million visitors were counted in the highest tourism draw in the central Sierra.

The sharp drop in recreational visitors to one of the state and country’s most popular travel destinations is a stark reminder of how COVID-19 has struck the tourism-based economies of Highway 120 and Tuolumne Counties since the pandemic – leading to the death of more than 487,495 Americans – started early last year.

The 2020 total recreational goer for Yosemite is the lowest in more than 45 years. The last time the park had fewer than 2.26 million visitors a year was in 1973. The park set a record with 5,028,868 recreational visitors in 2016, averaging 4.25 million visitors a year from 2017 to 2019.

More than 90% of the business at Lucky Buck Cafe in Buck Meadows on Highway 120 in Mariposa County comes from Yosemite recreational visitors, Lucky Buck owner Denise Anker said in a phone interview Tuesday.

“When the park closed, my business fell 90 to 95 percent,” said Anker. “That right there tells you we don’t get a lot of locals. It’s all about Yosemite. “

Lucky Buck’s total annual sales declined 62% in 2020, Anker said, and she believes a large part of that was due to the park being closed from March through June.

“We’ve been hit harder than Yosemite when you compare 62% with 48%,” said Anker. “We were hit very hard because of the restrictions. We were over more than the Yosemite traffic. Of course, it had a huge impact on the bottom line. I took on a lot of debt just to stay open. “

There could be other business owners sharing rosier numbers, Anker said, but she refuses to sugarcoat the situation. Your plan is to stay there and hope for better days. She hopes last weekend is a positive sign.

“We had a really good weekend on President’s Day,” said Anker. “Sunday was the second highest day in 12 months. Usually these busy days are in summer, so it’s encouraging. To see this in February, that’s a silver lining. I was completely surprised to see a number as high as a summer day in February. “

Anker emphasized that indoor dining is allowed in Mariposa County. Further west on Highway 120 on Big Oak Flat in Tuolumne County, Anker’s brother Steve Anker owns the Priest Station Cafe, which has been closed since early January. He said Tuesday all of 2020 “sucked in every possible way.”

The decline in visitor numbers to Yosemite has hurt the Priest Station Cafe, as has the pandemic itself, since eating at a restaurant is a social activity, he said. People are less likely to want to enjoy a pleasant meal in a coffee shop amid a pandemic.

The park’s closure also hurt Tuolumne County’s residents at a time when everyone could “enjoy the tranquility, beauty and inspiration of nature that we were all denied,” said Steve Anker. He added that although it has been closed since shortly after the New Year, it is “very excited to open again soon”.

A spokesman for the Highway 120 Chamber of Commerce could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

The county’s 2020 tourism stats are not expected until the first week of May, Lisa Mayo, President and General Manager of Visit Tuolumne County, said Tuesday. However, with only about half of Yosemite’s visitors, the impact on Mother Lode’s tourism industry is very significant.

Yosemite is a major reason international travelers come to the county. International travelers stay longer and therefore spend more money in their travel destinations. “If we don’t have them, it will be a huge achievement for our economy,” Mayo said.

Domestic travelers also spend several days in the area to experience Yosemite and other gems in the county. If the park is inaccessible or restricted, it will affect the economy of the county and its components, especially hotels, shops, attractions, and restaurants. From a tourist perspective, fewer Yosemite visitors mean fewer visitors in other parts of the county.

“While Yosemite is a huge draw for tourism, at Visit Tuolumne County we are really working to ensure that Yosemite visitors explore the other amazing parts of our county as well,” Mayo added.

The county’s reliance on Yosemite tourism is highlighted whenever someone searches for “Visit Tuolumne County” online. The very first match that contains these search terms is “Start Your Vacation in Yosemite National Park, Tuolumne County”.

Denise Anker explicitly criticized the system to limit the current Yosemite visitor numbers, which was used for several months when the park opened in 2020.

“This crazy reservation system, this whole policy is really negative for marginalized communities,” she said on Tuesday. “It really punishes people with lesser economic needs. People need equipment and perseverance to get a reservation. It excludes a lot of people. It’s a complicated system. People without a computer make it difficult to get into the park. The park should be for everyone, not just for people with computers and high-end devices. People don’t understand. They come up to my restaurant and don’t know how to get into the park. “

The park’s communications staff didn’t respond to inquiries on Tuesday. In a social media post on Friday, February 12, park staff reminded Yosemite visitors that face masks are required in all federal buildings and areas if physical distance cannot be maintained, including narrow or busy paths, Viewpoints and historic houses.

The reservation system for Yosemite visitors that ran from June to October 2020 was reintroduced early last week.

Each day reservation is for one vehicle and all occupants of the vehicle, according to Yosemite communications staff. For visitors to the park – at the Ahwahnee Hotel, Yosemite Valley Lodge, or Camp Upper Pines – daytime reservations are included in nighttime reservations. The reservation system will remain in place in Yosemite until local health conditions improve. Reservations can be made at www.recreation.gov.