After recent years of overcrowding, this summer might be a good time to visit your favorite national park, and you can thank Elon Musk and Big Balls for that. Tourist reservations at key hot spots around the United States have reportedly fallen off amid turmoil in the National Park Service, which was recently hit by DOGE-fueled layoffs of more than 1,000 staff. The cuts have been temporarily rolled back following legal challenges, but uncertainty remains.
Business Insider spoke with park advocates and business owners around the country, and the conclusion is that the public is taking a wait-and-see approach to the upcoming summer season. One hotelier near Yosemite told the website that his three resorts are down 1,000 bookings over last year. On the east coast, near the Cape Cod National Seashore, hotel reservations are reportedly down approximately 5% for the peak season. The typical booking season runs from January through March.
It is possible some of this has to do with broader economic uncertainty, but Business Insider identified other more direct reasons.
One of the biggest concerns cited that could be keeping people away is the NPS’s decision to suspend its reservation system, which required visitors to book a set time and day they could visit the park. “Knowing whether there would be a reservation system or not has made it difficult for people to plan trips — why book a hotel room when you can’t be certain you’ll even be able to get into the park on the days you’re there?” NPS has not said whether it will bring back the reservation system for the fast-approaching summer season.
There has also been a notable drop in interest from Canadians, according to airline travel data. Niedzwiecki, from the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, told Business Insider he has heard from recurring Canadian visitors who are “very direct” about not wanting to visit this year over the soured state of relations with the U.S.
If tourists do manage to get into the parks, potential understaffing could result in a noticeable impact on park visitors’ experience: Visitor centers staffed by volunteers or non-profits; smaller parks being closed on weekdays; long waits at entrance stations; trails not being maintained, and so on and so forth. It depends on whether President Trump can move forward with cuts.
It is unclear what the logic is behind cutting back on staffing in national parks, which amount to roughly 85 million acres of wild terrain across the country that requires substantial physical labor to maintain. Those staffers also collect entry fees to help fund nature preservation. In the same way that DOGE wants to discontinue Social Security phone support and push seniors to the website, maybe Tesla will get a contract to staff up the parks with Optimus robots.
At least in some places like Yosemite, experts do not think there is much to worry about, at least for this upcoming season. The park typically has roughly 800 full-time and seasonal staff during the summer, which was initially cut down by 35 in complying with DOGE’s directive to cut costs across the entire federal government through firings and deferred resignations. There was also a hiring freeze which would have impacted the seasonal workers the parks rely on, but the NPS says those hirings will go forward.
The NPS is working to reinstate the 1,000 probationary employees who were let go while the White House appeals a federal judge order, but the losses from deferred resignations are unlikely to return.
The drop in summer bookings seems to be having the biggest impact on local communities that rely on the parks to support small businesses. Right now, gear rental outfitters and other businesses are struggling to ascertain how many workers to hire, which could depend a lot on the next moves by the Trump administration.
Ultimately none of this may even matter to President Trump, who earlier this week announced a plan to use federal lands for new housing. He has also stated in the ongoing trade dispute with Canada that the U.S. does not need lumber from up north. Who knows, maybe the administration will be strip mining for coal and drilling for oil by Memorial Day. Or perhaps the plan is to knock down a lot of forest land in Yosemite and build a new Trump resort property.
For now, things are alright. Just keep in mind that if you do decide to take the chance and plan a trip to a national park, there is a 50-50 chance the toilets will be overflowing and trash will be littered everywhere.