Tourists will skip US due to rip-off national park fees

Simon Calder on price discrimination for overseas visitors

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“More Affordable National Park Access”: that is the ludicrous headline of a US Department of the Interior press release that signals a brutal price increase for foreign visitors to America’s most appealing national parks.

In “the most significant modernisation of national park access in decades”, the authorities have decided on “a new resident-focused fee structure that puts American families first”.

Nothing wrong with that: many world-class locations, from Petra in Jordan to Machu Picchu in Peru, charge less for their citizens than foreigners pay. It works on a local level, too: residents of Bath get a £10 discount on admission to the city’s rooftop pool. These locations have a large number of tourists, which presents some problems for the community, so a reward of this kind is justified.

But there are limits, and President Trump’s administration has just gone way beyond them.