FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
August 9, 2001
Attendance At Florida State Parks Reaches
All-Time High
TALLAHASSEE
-- More than 18
million people visited Florida’s state parks last year, which is
a new attendance record for the state’s award-winning state park
system.
The
latest attendance figures are for fiscal year 2000-01, which began
July 1, 2000 and ended June 30, 2001. These figures show that park
attendance reached 18.1 million visitors -- 8.2-percent more than
the 16.7-million visitors to Florida’s state parks the previous
fiscal year.
"Because
of the growing interest in nature and heritage tourism, Florida’s
state parks are attracting record numbers of visitors," said
Mike Bullock, Acting Director of the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection’s Division of Recreation and Parks.
"This desire on the part of our visitors to experience
Florida’s natural areas benefits Florida’s important tourism
industry, especially in rural areas."
In the
1999-2000 fiscal year, Florida’s state park system had an
overall direct economic impact of nearly $464 million on local
economies throughout the state and generated over 14,000 jobs.
Florida’s
state park system is one of the largest in the country, with 155
units covering nearly 600,000 acres. Florida state parks have
received numerous awards for excellence, obtaining the ultimate
recognition in 1999-2001 by winning the National Sporting Goods
Association/National Recreation and Park Association National
State Park Gold Medal, recognizing Florida’s state park system
as the best in all 50 states.
Florida’s
state parks receive no general revenue funds from the state
budget. About half the state park system’s operating budget is
from fees paid by visitors. For this reason, "We have
implemented very effective public awareness programs to raise the
visibility of Florida state parks among our residents and
visitors," Bullock said. "The results have been
outstanding, with attendance and revenues both up some 30 percent
over the past five years."
A
recently-released Florida state parks visitor satisfaction survey
conducted by the University of Florida found that nearly 99
percent of the more than 5,000 survey respondents felt that the
parks’ natural and cultural features are worth protecting, while
95 percent would like to visit the park again and 96 percent of
respondents were satisfied with their trip. Ninety-five percent
felt that Florida’s state parks are clean and well maintained.
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