Using experience characteristics and coping strategies to understand visitor support for a national park managed access system: case study of arches National Park

Park and Protected Area (PPA) managers and researchers have identified a suite of tools to manage visitors to public lands, on a spectrum from indirect (education) to direct (enforcement) actions. Rationing and allocation techniques are a suite of frequently studied direct management actions in the context of wilderness, backcountry, and river use permitting. Recently, PPAs in the United States have implemented rationing and allocation techniques in high-use front-country settings, in the form of entrance reservation systems. In 2022, Arches National Park, Utah, implemented a pilot vehicle entry reservation system to address the impacts of congestion on visitor experience and biophysical resources. This study used a survey of Arches visitors (n = 537) to investigate visitor perceptions of Arches’ pilot reservation system, and how experience characteristics (i.e., ease of navigating the reservation system) and coping strategies employed by visitors (i.e., rationalization, product shift, and displacement) influence their support for public land reservation systems. Results of the study indicate high levels of support for this management action in the future. Satisfaction with the communication and navigation of the system predicted support the strongest. Coping strategies did not significantly influence support for reservation systems on future visits. These findings present valuable information for managers and policymakers when designing vehicle reservation systems in PPAs that both preserve the integrity of biophysical resources and alleviate congestion without diminishing the visitor experience.