Numbers are up
since the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore became the 61st national park in
the U.S. earlier this year
July is usually the
business month at the Dunes, but visitation to both the Dunes National and
State parks and park social media is higher than usual, according to the
staff report given at Thursday’s Indiana Dunes Tourism Board meeting.
In each of the six
days preceding Thursday’s meeting, over a thousand people came through the
Visitor Center on Ind. 49. A record 2,363 people came to the Visitor Center
on Thursday, July 6. Visitation is up 44%. Sales at the Visitor Center are
up 65%, in part thanks to the addition of new items such as tie dye
t-shirts.
Dunes Tourism’s
YouTube subscriptions have almost doubled since May 2018, according to
Promotions Director Dustin Ritchea, and its three top social media channels
have a combined 2.1 million impressions.
The Indiana Dunes
National Park has gotten some positive press that has probably boosted its
online presence, including making a Forbes list of best National
parks to visit to beat the crowds. Both the National and State parks were
even the subjects of a recent New York Times article: “Welcome to
America’s Newest National Park. Don’t Mind the Power Plant.”
Executive Director
of Indiana Dunes Tourism Lorelei Weimer said the article was a pleasant
surprise. The writer completed the Three-Dune Challenge and came to the
Visitor Center twice in April, according to the story. “There are three nice
paragraphs about the person interacting with our volunteers,” Weimer said.
“We didn’t even know that this all took place, and he came specifically from
New York to experience our National Park.”
In other business,
Weimer reported the beach erosion issue has been assigned to a state senate
study committee, meeting Aug. 7. Key people will testify about the impact of
the erosion, and the committee will view the video that Weimer has
collaborated with the National Parks Conservation Association to create and
keep updated.
“I will be one of
the people down there potentially giving more of the economic impact and
letting them know what we’re seeing in terms of visitation increase as a
result of the name change,” Weimer said.
The Dunes were
dealt a major blow in April when the General Assembly opted not to earmark
$1.2 million for an Army Corps of Engineers’ study on combating beach
erosion and providing immediate beach nourishment following the collapse of
part of the Portage Riverwalk last year. Weimer’s and the NPCA’s video is
intended to show the extent of the damage from erosion and how it keeps
worsening.
Weimer hopes the
study committee could result in the budget being amended to provide some
funding for the study and beach nourishment. She said many issues don’t even
get to a study committee: “The fact that we did land that is a positive for
us.”
Weimer also thanked
the Valpo Chamber of Commerce for giving Dunes Tourism column space in its
magazine to address questions about the new National Park status. “At the
end of the day, our job is to get people to the Dunes, but we do want people
to shake the sand off and go south. The real money spent is in our
communities,” Weimer said.