I may well have missed it in the article, but what pray tell is the difference between "visitations" and "visitors?" I vaguely recall reading an article in the 1980s that said that ANP visitor statistics were based upon a rubber hose crossing the road at Thompson Island. If memory serves each vehicle crossing the hose was considered to contain 3.2 park visitors and no allowance was made for service vehicles, delivery trucks, locals commuting to jobs off island, or off islanders commuting to jobs on the island. This seemed a little on the "iffy" side statistically speaking. Are the figures (other than those reporting sales tax revenues) quoted in this article based upon more robust data than a rubber hose on Thompson Island?
Winston, there is a link at the bottom of the article that gives a brief explanation of the counting model that they use today. In 1989 they did in fact stop using the traffic counter on Thompson Island after getting a count of almost 5.5 million. A "visitor" is a person. A "visitation" is entry into the park by a visitor. A single visitor can only be counted once a day but that single visitor could make entry into the park every day for their seven day visit. That would be counted as seven visitations but only one visitor made them. That is the difference in the terms and also some of the difficulty in gathering accurate numbers as they pertain to tourism and visitors on the island and the region based solely upon ANP data.
Shaun thank you for the heads up on the footnote I missed. While I certainly don't miss the thump/thump of the hose at Thompson Island I'm not sure that the new counting methodology fills me with any more confidence than the old. This whole visitor count reminds me of a problem I had during the more than 30 years I spent monitoring the area's bald eagle population. One was never quite sure how many bald eagles there were in my study area which consisted of 652 miles of shoreline and 152 islands between Isle Au Haute and Millbridge. Trouble was the darned birds just wouldn't stay put at the nest site and kept wandering around. Perhaps visitors to ANP should be fitted with satellite tracking devices during their visit so that the visitor/visitation controversy can at last be put to rest. For what it's worth I'm betting upon a notable reduction in both counts.
Would someone think of the poor business owners? Obviously a near record season isn’t enough — they need more cruise ships too!
I may well have missed it in the article, but what pray tell is the difference between "visitations" and "visitors?" I vaguely recall reading an article in the 1980s that said that ANP visitor statistics were based upon a rubber hose crossing the road at Thompson Island. If memory serves each vehicle crossing the hose was considered to contain 3.2 park visitors and no allowance was made for service vehicles, delivery trucks, locals commuting to jobs off island, or off islanders commuting to jobs on the island. This seemed a little on the "iffy" side statistically speaking. Are the figures (other than those reporting sales tax revenues) quoted in this article based upon more robust data than a rubber hose on Thompson Island?
Winston, there is a link at the bottom of the article that gives a brief explanation of the counting model that they use today. In 1989 they did in fact stop using the traffic counter on Thompson Island after getting a count of almost 5.5 million. A "visitor" is a person. A "visitation" is entry into the park by a visitor. A single visitor can only be counted once a day but that single visitor could make entry into the park every day for their seven day visit. That would be counted as seven visitations but only one visitor made them. That is the difference in the terms and also some of the difficulty in gathering accurate numbers as they pertain to tourism and visitors on the island and the region based solely upon ANP data.
Shaun thank you for the heads up on the footnote I missed. While I certainly don't miss the thump/thump of the hose at Thompson Island I'm not sure that the new counting methodology fills me with any more confidence than the old. This whole visitor count reminds me of a problem I had during the more than 30 years I spent monitoring the area's bald eagle population. One was never quite sure how many bald eagles there were in my study area which consisted of 652 miles of shoreline and 152 islands between Isle Au Haute and Millbridge. Trouble was the darned birds just wouldn't stay put at the nest site and kept wandering around. Perhaps visitors to ANP should be fitted with satellite tracking devices during their visit so that the visitor/visitation controversy can at last be put to rest. For what it's worth I'm betting upon a notable reduction in both counts.