Recreation Fees Management Improvements Can Help The Demonstration Program Enhance Visitor Services

Congress authorized the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program to help federal land management agencies provide high-quality recreational opportunities to visitors and protect resources. The program focuses on recreational activities at the following four land management agencies: the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Forest Service. Under the fee demonstration program, participating agencies can collect fees at several sites and use them to (1) enhance visitor services, (2) address a backlog of needs for repair and maintenance, and (3) manage and protect resources. The agencies applied "entrance fees" for basic admission to an area and "user fees" for specific activities such as camping or launching a boat. Under the law, 80 percent of program revenue must be used at the site where it was collected. The rest may be distributed to other sites that may or may not be participating in the demonstration program. Some of the sites GAO surveyed experimented with innovative fee designs and collection methods, such as reducing fees during off-peak seasons and allowing visitors to use credit cards, but room for additional innovation exists, particularly in the areas of fee collection and coordination. The agencies also need to make improvement in three program management areas: evaluating their managers' performance in administering the fee program, developing information on which fee-collection and coordination practices work best, and resolving interagency management issues.

In recent years, some reports prepared by advocacy groups have raised issues concerning the adequacy of the the National Park Service's (NPS) financial resources needed to effectively operate the park units. This report identifies: (1) funding trends for NPS operations & visitor fees for FY2001-2005; (2) specific funding trends for 12 selected high visitation park units & how, if at all, the funding trends have affected operations; & (3) recent management initiatives the NPS has undertaken to address fiscal performance & accountability of park units. The report recommends that the Dept. of the Interior allow park units to use visitor fee revenues to pay the costs of permanent employees administering projects funded by visitor fees. Illustrations.

Fed. gov¿t policymakers are interested in user fees as a means of financing new and existing services. User fees can be designed to reduce the burden on taxpayers to finance the portions of activities that provide benefits to identifiable users above and beyond what is normally provided to the public. User fees can promote economic efficiency and equity. However user fees must be well designed. This report studies how user fee design characteristics may influence the effectiveness of user fees. The author examined how the 4 key design and implementation characteristics of user fees -- how fees are set, collected, used, and reviewed -- may affect the economic efficiency, equity, revenue adequacy, and administrative burden of cost-based fees.