Niagara Falls doesn’t really know how many people visit each year
Photo Credit: The entrance sign for Goat Island on the U.S. side of the Niagara State Park. Flickr / Michael Gray
Skift Take
Increased attention on the operations and costs of national parks under tight budget restraints should motivate state and regional parks to also analyze and reassess how they run.
Local officials encouraged a New York state parks executive on Wednesday to push for additional funding to help answer an age-old question -- how many people actually visit Niagara Falls State Park in a given year?
During a meeting with state parks Deputy Commissioner Tom Alworth, representatives from the state parks commission for the western region suggested Albany should consider investing in what some commissioners described as a long-overdue visitor analysis at the park.
"That's basic research," said outgoing Commissioner Harvey Albond, a long-time advocate for the proposed analysis.
Fellow Commissioner Jerry Mosey agreed, saying having such information would be helpful in evaluating park operations.
"Without that data, we really can't make valid evaluations on anything," he said.
While state parks does collect
