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Show Visitor survey underway in SE Utah parklands Visitors leaving Arches, the Nee dies and Island in the Sky Districts of I'anyonlands, and Natural Bridges Na tional Monument in the last two months may have encountered a curious road block. The signs announcing "Kingman Ahead" do not mean construction, or an engineer and his tripod in the middle of the road, instead a young lady will approach the car and request that information be volunteered about the visit to the park. The National l'ark Service has con tracted with private research compan ies, Davidson Peterson Associates and PHQ.tD of California to conduct a visitor survey in parks throughout the west. Their purpose in doing so was to gain public input on the facilities and services the parks should offer and what Nl'S programs can add to the quality of the visit. After the end of the survey in November, results will be compiled and presented in public seminars. The questions vary from a section asking on w hat roads the visitor came to the park, accommodations, etc. to a section determining the nature of the visit ie. a vacation trip, a 1 day outing, etc. The l'ark Service is also interested in the socio-economic status of the visitor and family, as well us his suggestions about w hat could be dune in the park to improve his experience there. According to Larry Ilorick, PBQ&I) representative responsible for the direct administration of the survey and personnel, person-nel, thus far, the survey has achieved the desired and expected results. The survey sur-vey team is armed with two forms of the questions-one, a personal interview with a visitor and the other, the same questions outlined on a form to be answered by the visitor at his convenience conven-ience and mailed back. The firm hopes to conduct a total of 121)0 personal interviews inter-views by the close of the survey and to distribute 3 times that number of mail back surveys. With the mail backs giving a 3:i"o return, there should be a total of approximately 2500 respondents. Ilorick also reported that they are quite pleased with the response so far. People have been friendly and helpful -although they often turn down the personal interview in the interest of time, they take along a mail back form. The girls conducting the survey also have been able to function as a sort of go between for minor problems encountered. encoun-tered. They relay visitor concerns about water hook-ups, etc directly to the ranger office. |