Tourists to the United States could face higher costs to visit national parks under a proposal from the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump’s recent budget proposal for the National Park Service would introduce a surcharge on visitors from other countries. The proposal doesn’t detail how much the surcharge would be, but the administration’s budget summary estimates it could raise $90 million “to keep national parks beautiful.”
The proposal is part of a much larger budget plan advanced by Trump’s Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and detailed in recently released documents, that would cut federal funding for national parks by roughly $1 billion. The budget also recommends transferring some national parks to state management to save costs and redirecting funds for conservation toward maintenance.
Burgum has argued that parks can be made more efficient by the reductions, while park advocates warn that parks are already understaffed and under-resourced amid record levels of tourism.
