As Pinnacles settles into its new status as a national park, locals are buzzing about the potential economic impact the change may have for the community.
“I see it that people will realize it is here and add it to a list,” said Debbie Taylor, executive director of the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau. “For a lot of tourists, it would be a must-see. We will catch the attention of people who haven’t been there and appeal to those who haven’t been there before.”
For Taylor, an increase in visitors to the east side of the park, which has more infrastructure than the wilder west side of the park, is an opportunity to connect visitors with the other assets in San Benito County.
“They can visit the wine trail or be here for an event and make a full weekend of it,” she said in the days after President Obama signed the bill elevating Pinnacles from a national monument to a national park on Jan. 10.
Taylor said she thought the designation of the park in the coming months, which could bring in national officials to the county, “is going to be the big draw.”
She referred to the offerings on the east side of the park, such as bird watching of the California condors and camping as reasons visitors may choose to enter on the east side of the park that does not vehicle access connecting the two sides.
Adam Damm, who operates the campgrounds and camp store at Pinnacles National Park, said he believes the status change will bring up visitation.
“It would be great,” he said. “It would be fantastic.”
He said in the summer the campgrounds are at capacity. But with increased interest in the park, more people may want to camp year-round.
“This time of year we have gorgeous weather,” he said. “People still come. Last night we had four campers.”
Damm said people associate a national monument “with a slab on the side of the road.”
“This will raise awareness to what the resources are out there,” he said. “It’s not just a plaque. It gets them to look into it. The job is done and now they know this is a pretty cool place.”
Tim Regan, the president of the Pinnacles Partnership, a nonprofit that supports the park, said the change should make the park “more visible and increase our chance of increasing our membership.”
He said the board members for the partnership have discussed how to use the park status as part of a campaign to increase membership.
“A lot of people like to go to parks – not necessarily to monuments,” he said. “It puts us in a different category. We expect visitation to go up because of the park status. It should help the visitation a lot.”
He said Hollister will likely be considered the gateway for the east side of the park.
“We’ve been in conversations with communities on the west side and now that the park is there, they all want to become the gateway to the west,” Regan said, of the side of the park in Monterey County, which boasts a visitor’s station completed in April 2012 with federal stimulus funds. “But on the east side it’s pretty much just Hollister.”
Regan sees potential for hotels, restaurants, grocery stores or even stores that sell camping or rock climbing equipment for activities popular on the east side of the park.
Regan’s family owns property that is near the park – with an easement through federal property required to get to the land – and he said in the last 10 years he has seen a marked increase in visitation.
Increased membership in the Pinnacles Partnership would provide more funding to support the park.
“We are pretty much connected at the hip,” Regan said, noting that the partnership has supported the condor recovery program, started a science camp for rural students and worked to bring Bear Valley School into the park.
Regan said he anticipates there will be a lot more foreign visitors to the park.
Taylor said days after Pinnacles gained national park status, she was already receiving calls from potential visitors and requests for interviews from outside press agencies. She said the chamber staff updated the website to reflect the new park status.
The status update comes as the chamber tourism committee has been working to approve of a tour operator who will be able to show visitors the assets of the community in a half or full-day trip.
“I am sure it is something that can roll into the itinerary,” Taylor said, of the park. “It is a destination site.”
Taylor offered some thanks for the politician who moved the bill forward.
“We applaud Congressman Sam Farr for this bill,” Taylor said. “It started out in July 2012 and progressed forward on behalf of San Benito County. I really believe the outcome definitely is paving the way for San Benito to take pride and be able to say we have a national park in our county.”
