One of the first travel-related casualties of any potential U.S. government shutdown are the U.S. National Parks and the tourism companies that depend on them.
The government could again be partly shut down at midnight Dec. 20 unless Congress acts on a short-term, continuing-funding resolution.
If the shutdown occurs, nonessential functions of the government close. That includes the 63 National Parks, ranging from Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska to Everglades National Park in Florida.
The good news is that this is the off season for national park tourism. The bad news is that planning activity is in full swing.
“While this is not a busy time for tour groups to explore parks and other National Park Service sites, it is a time when operators are making plans for next year and beyond,” said Catherine Prater, president of the National Tour Association. “During a shutdown, [park service] personnel will not be able to answer operators’ questions or book their reservations.”
Prater said 75% of NTA tour operator members package U.S. national parks.
“The longer the shutdown continues, the better the chance that group travel will be disrupted,” Prater said. “Also, although essential services such as TSA and air traffic control will be kept open, those employees will be working without pay, which is unfair and far from ideal during one of our busiest travel seasons.”
Steve Born, chief marketing officer for the Globus family of brands, said that in the past when a shutdown has loomed, the government has been able to work through it before the deadline or has resolved issues in a relatively short period of time, limiting disruptions to park access.
“We do have a February Yellowstone Winter Wonderland departure that we would have to address, should a shutdown occur and last through January,” Born said.
Government shutdowns and federal furloughs have been a feature of budget negotiations in Washington since at least the Ronald Reagan presidency in the 1980s. The longest shutdown was more recent, however: A 35-day period from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019, during the first presidential term of Donald Trump.
Beyond officially named national parks, the National Park System includes battlefields, monuments, historic sites, seashores and recreation areas where access could also be limited. In the Caribbean, the Virgin Islands National Park in Saint John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico could close, impacting tourism.
Collette chief revenue officer Jeff Roy said his company has more than 50 U.S. domestic tours, many of which feature the national parks. “It’s not so significant in the wintertime,” he said. “Basically, this time of year is not the peak; the peak will be May to September.
“But we’re always watching those parks issues closely,” he said. “You just hope it doesn’t happen.”