![]() Some parks have partnered with outside businesses in gateway communities that will sell park passes for cash. What happens if you only brought cash to a cashless park? One way to do so would be to pre-purchase entrance passes on before even heading out. “I think people should certainly not just assume everything works every place, and so they should certainly do a little due diligence and plan ahead.” ”I think that those cashless options oftentimes are multiplying faster than what we can keep up with, and they do need to interface with our point-of-sale system,” Unger said. Visitors may pay entry fees by debit or credit card and in some cases, contactless options like Apple Pay. Unger noted there is a “very, very, very, very, very small” amount of internal theft, equivalent to less than 0.1% of total collections, but "it is something that we have to pay attention to.” What forms of payment are accepted? “Imagine a tablet and being able, when we have long queued lines, to swipe people's cards as you walk down the line so that as people are approaching the entrance gate in very busy parks, they can keep moving through the entrance gate as fast as possible, making a better customer experience,” Unger said.Ĭashless transactions can also help parks protect their dollars from internal and external theft. “The amount of cash that we are actually being offered has significantly declined by tens of millions of dollars," he said.Ĭashless transactions can also be processed quicker now that national parks have streamlined their various point-of-sale systems down to one system. Unger said visitor behavior has also played a role in the move to cashless. Instead they get to focus on doing law enforcement, providing emergency services.” Other factors We don't have to pay for an employee to be able to shuttle cash back and forth or to have our law enforcement officers doing that. Death Valley spent roughly $40,000 a year on processing and transporting cash, according to the park.īy going cashless, Unger said, “We're not paying for armored car service. “The number of formal banks with relationships with the Treasury Department, where we could actually take cash, has really dried up especially in more rural or remote areas,” he said.Ĭouple that with the ongoing closure of brick and mortar banks, and many parks wind up having to take that cash even further to deposit, costing both time and money. Treasury created policies to reduce the amount of cash and checks handled across the federal government and many banks stopped partnering with the Treasury in that process. To start, Unger said in recent years the U.S. There are a number of reasons some parks stop accepting cash. Beyond iconic national parks like Acadia and Zion, the National Park System includes national battlefields, monuments, seashores and more. It’s worth noting, only about a quarter of the 424 sites within the National Park System charge entrance fees and park managers decide whether their sites go cashless. Want the best national parks for hiking? Here are the top 10 with the most trails What national parks are going cashless in 2023?ĭeath Valley National Park and Rocky Mountain National Park went cashless on June 1, just days after Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and Mount Rainier National Park.Īdditionally, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and Prince William Forest Park are currently piloting cashless programs that run into July. Has anyone been to every national park? This family spent 6 years completing the challenge ![]() Here’s why accepting cash is costly for national parks. “We are trying to watch where our visitor demand is, but we're also trying to make smart operational decisions that allow us to keep as many dollars in our parks,” Justin Unger, National Park Service associate director for Business Services, told USA TODAY. ![]() A handful of others have just gone cashless and more may be coming. This summer, visitors may also want to bring a debit or credit card.ĭozens of the 424 sites within the National Park System no longer accept cash for entry. Travelers expect to pack basics like sunscreen, water and hiking boots for trips to national parks. ![]()
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