From Cataloochee to Cherohala: Officials pondering ways to spread the love
GATLINBURG — With ever more people crowding Great Smoky Mountains National Park, should the park and others encourage them to go somewhere else?
Enter “de-marketing:” A presentation at the 2024 Great Smoky Mountains Science Colloquium laid out a study examining ways to draw people away from Great Smoky Mountains National Park and toward the Cherohala Skyway. The colloquium, sponsored by Discover Life in America, can be found on YouTube along with other presentations from the day, ranging from elk to ozone’s effects on plants. Justin M. Beall gave the presentation on crowds and de-marketing and said he conducted the research while at North Carolina State University. His was the only social science presentation of the day.
“That doesn’t mean we want to stop people from getting outdoors,” Beall said. “It just involves trying to convince visitors, maybe on their next trip, to explore a less visited destination in order to reduce crowding in certain spots.” He called it “diversion de-marketing” and said it was better than other de-marketing strategies. Two such other de-marketing strategies — forcing people to make reservations or raising the prices — he said, might price out people who earn less money or could confuse and frustrate visitors.
Beall said his study involved giving brochures to people at Alum Cave and Laurel Falls trailheads and Clingmans Dome. One focused on nature opportunities at Cherohala Skyway; one focused on social media photo and video posting opportunities there; and a third was more “of a boring control” in its approach to promoting the Skyway. His team distributed 500 surveys, evenly divided by both site and type of brochure. He said he expected to be there for 10 days but the group finished it in a little more than three days.
That “is amazing from a social sciences perspective, but I think again it shows you during these peak visitation times, such as peak leaf season, how many visitors can actually be in the park at one time,” he said.
The Cherohala Skyway is a National Scenic Byway that runs from Tellico Plains, Tenn. to Robbinsville, N.C. It’s less visited than Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is regularly the most visited national park in the country. Thirteen million visits were recorded in 2003.
“There are plenty of stops along the way where you can experience waterfalls, rivers, hikes, scenic overlooks, that kind of thing,” Beall said.
“No alternative destination is going to be a perfect substitute, but it is relatively close and does encompass many of the same features as Great Smoky Mountains does,” he said.
Sixty-five percent of respondents said they found the Cherohala Skyway at least somewhat appealing. Fifty-nine percent said they were at least somewhat likely to visit on a return trip. About 70 percent said they were at least somewhat likely to visit the skyway if Great Smoky Mountains National Park became too crowded. But only 10 percent of respondents reported being at least “somewhat familiar” with the Cherohala Skyway.
Beall pointed out a positive correlation between attachment to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and a desire to visit Cherohala Skyway. While that might seem unlikely, Beall said it might have to do with the two destinations’ similarities.
Nature and social media, Beall said, both worked better than the control at driving appeal, however, there was no significant difference between the nature and social media focused brochures. The average for all the brochures was “somewhat agree” regardless of treatment, but he still argued that due to his results some kind of framing either around nature or social media was helpful.
He warned that intention does not mean reality in terms of which parks people visit.
In response to a question, he also said a good focus for future research might look at drawing people to less visited areas within Great Smoky Mountains National Park or visiting at other times.