{"673885":{"#nid":"673885","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Social Media Driving Force Behind Increased Visits to National Parks","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESocial media is a powerful influence on our lives and our culture, driving decisions from what we eat for lunch to where we go on vacation. Now, a new study from \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/econ.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech\u0027s School of Economics\u003C\/a\u003E is the first to tie high levels of social media exposure to increased visitors to the U.S. National Parks \u2014 and the increased crowding and ecological damage they bring with them.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022There\u0027s been a general idea that social media exposure matters for visitation, but this research shows that it matters to a very strong degree,\u0022 said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/econ.gatech.edu\/people\/person\/casey-wichman\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ECasey Wichman,\u003C\/a\u003E an associate professor of economics and the author of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2310417121\u0022\u003Ethe study,\u003C\/a\u003E published in April in the \u003Cem\u003EProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.\u003C\/em\u003E \u0022It\u0027s one of the main drivers of the huge increase in visitation to national parks.\u0022\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EHowever, he says, the overall picture is much more nuanced than it\u2019s often portrayed in media accounts.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWichman found that parks with high social media exposure saw a 16 to 22% increase in visitors compared to locations that received less attention on social media. The growth began in 2013 when Instagram and Twitter started to gain popularity.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile well-known parks such as Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone saw big jumps tied to social media exposure, smaller, less well-known properties also saw significant jumps. For example, the number of travelers to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska increased by more than 180%.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EParks in the Southeast saw little change on average because a decrease at parks in Florida and the Carolinas offset an increase at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation\u2019s most visited national park. The biggest increases on a percentage basis occurred in the Western U.S., particularly in Alaska, the Rocky Mountain region, and Utah.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022It seems like there may be some reshuffling of where people go because there are a lot of parks that don\u0027t see increases in visitation despite being pretty cool, interesting parks in similar areas,\u0022 Wichman said. \u201cBut people end up seeing the parks with higher exposure online and are more likely to get pushed into visiting them.\u0022\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWichman used five measurements to create an index of social media exposure: Instagram followers, Instagram mentions, Twitter followers, Twitter mentions, and the total number of likes and retweets on Twitter. Then, he ranked the parks based on the average of these five metrics, with a lower rank indicating greater social media exposure.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Social media serves as advertising for parks in a way that\u0027s targeted to an individual\u0027s network,\u0022 Wichman said. \u0022However, not all exposure increases visits \u2014 it has to be good exposure.\u0022\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWichman also looked at the type of posts and their effects, finding that tweets with photos or videos drove increased visits in the year after they were posted, while tweets with negative sentiment decreased visits over the following year.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe increase in visitation due to social media is a double-edged sword, Wichman says. More visitors can result in overcrowding, frustrating traffic jams, and difficulty accessing campsites or other amenities. More traffic also means more pollution. But tourists also pay entrance fees and buy things at gift shops, restaurants and other concessions \u2014 revenue that can help support park operations, wildlife conservation efforts, and local economies. And, those pretty pictures of nature can also get people excited about going outside, which has its own benefits for travelers, Wichman said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022If you look at news articles, social media is largely pitched as driving overcrowding and being a negative thing. But it\u0027s not clear to me that that\u0027s the case,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, we spend a lot of time on our phones, especially younger demographics, but this also suggests that social media can actually get us outside more. I don\u0027t know if it\u0027s good or bad, but it\u0027s much more nuanced than many sensationalist stories have made it out to be.\u0022\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EWichman\u2019s paper, \u201cSocial Media Influences National Parks Visitation,\u201d was published in April 2024 in the \u003C\/em\u003EProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.\u003Cem\u003E It is available at\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2310417121\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2310417121\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA new study from Georgia Tech\u0027s School of Economics is the first to tie high levels of social media exposure to increased visitors to the U.S. National Parks \u2014 and the increased crowding and ecological damage they bring with them.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A new study from Georgia Tech\u0027s School of Economics is the first to tie high levels of social media exposure to increased visitors to the U.S. National Parks \u2014 and the increased crowding and ecological damage they bring with them.\u00a0"}],"uid":"35766","created_gmt":"2024-04-01 19:26:09","changed_gmt":"2024-04-02 15:23:03","author":"dminardi3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-04-01T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-04-01T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"673577":{"id":"673577","type":"image","title":"socialmediaparks.jpg","body":null,"created":"1712001743","gmt_created":"2024-04-01 20:02:23","changed":"1712001743","gmt_changed":"2024-04-01 20:02:23","alt":"Outdoor influencer filming content in a park","file":{"fid":"256988","name":"socialmediaparks.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/04\/01\/socialmediaparks.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/04\/01\/socialmediaparks.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":169512,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/04\/01\/socialmediaparks.jpg?itok=IBzPLp_U"}}},"media_ids":["673577"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1282","name":"School of Economics"}],"categories":[{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:dminardi3@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EDi Minardi\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nIvan Allen College of Liberal Arts\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["dminardi3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}