National park entrance fee increase: a conceptual framework

With decreasing appropriation from public funding and increasing operational costs, public nature-tourism managers are facing ongoing pressure to increase self-generated revenue, such as entrance fees to sustain current services. However, raising fees often arouses resistance from visitors, and thus managing negative reactions is critical to the success of a new fee initiative. Following a three-step process of rendering conceptual relationships from textual data, this study analyzed a large volume of public comments submitted regarding the National Park Service’s entrance fee increase proposal and developed a conceptual framework to understand support/opposition of fee increases on public lands. The conceptual framework identified five constructs affecting support/opposition of fee increases: right-based opposition to public land fees, distributive justice principles, fee increase magnitude, place attachment, and trust in government. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed.