Domestic visitation to NSW national parks

How many domestic visits in 2010?

Total	34.6 million visits
Adults	27.9 million visits
Children	6.6 million visits

What parks do they visit?

The top five parks for domestic visits are:

• Blue Mountains National Park
• Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park
• Royal National Park
• Lane Cove National Park
• Kosciusko National Park

Metropolitan Branch received the greatest number of domestic visits followed by Coastal Branch.

Who visits?

Region of Origin	% of Visits
Sydney	55.15
Remainder NSW	32.96
Queensland	5.3
Victoria	3.3
ACT	2.2
SA	0.59
WA	0.31
TAS	0.11
NT	0.05

Males were more likely to visit than females.

18-24 year olds have increased in the 2010 survey by 3%.

35-49 year olds were a higher proportion of visitors than they represent in the population.

What do the visitors do?

The most commonly named activity undertaken at PWG parks was walking. This was followed by water-based recreation, picnicking and dining and touring and sightseeing.

How satisfied are the visitors?

An overwhelming 93% of visitors were satisfied to very satisfied.

Source of data

NPWS used a telephone survey to collect this data. More than 1,200 people were interviewed every four weeks in 2010, giving a total of 15,643 interviews. Respondents from NSW, Victoria, Queensland and the ACT were asked about NSW parks they had visited within the last four weeks.

• Read the full report - 2010 (NationalParkVisitsNSW.pdf - 1.89MB)
• Read the full report - 2008 (NationalParkVisitsNSW.pdf - 1.89MB)

This survey will be repeated in 2012 to track changes to our domestic visitation.

The study was based on a survey method developed by Parks Victoria. OEH wishes to acknowledge the generosity of Parks Victoria in sharing their experiences and the method.