| Visits up at park |
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| Local Content - Local News |
| Written by publisher |
| Tuesday, 22 December 2009 15:27 |
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By Paul Grigaitis Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park had 280,000 visits this past summer, reflecting a two per cent increase over the previous camping season. About 58,000 vehicles entered the park located about half hour drive south of Maple Creek during the season, about the same as last year, but a six per cent increase in annual passes were sold. About 22,000 annual passes were sold versus about 20,500 in 2008, according to a provincial representative. Camper nights also increased to 37,000 from 35,500, she added. The increase in visits locally reflects an increase at Saskatchewan’s provincial parks on a whole. Saskatchewan’s provincial parks saw 3.3 million visitors in 2009, an increase of two per cent when compared to 2008 and 10 per cent when compared to 2007. Mary-Anne Wihak of the Ministry of Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport said she thinks a number of reasons contribute to the increase in usage at Saskatchewan’s provincial parks. “We’re electrifying more sites and those kinds of things, we think more people are staying at home,” she said. The rising cost of gas two years ago would discourage people from travelling farther for their camping experience and the recession provided similar effects this past summer, she explained. Also, camping seems to be on the rise in popularity across the country, Wihak said citing both provincial and national park agency trends. “It just seems to be a real recreational and vacation pursuit of choice.” Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park supervisor Brant Seifert said he agrees the camping trend seems to be on the rise. “I just believe that over the last 10 years, camping has become more popular,” he said. As part of changes at provincial parks in the coming camping season, Cypress Park will have 40 sites out of 500 reserved as a maximum 14-consecutive-night-stay program, Seifert said. For the 2011 camping season, people can expect an addition of about 100 electrical sites, part of the province’s aim to add 1,000 electrical sites across the province, Seifert added. The seasonal camping draw also moves ahead to the last Tuesday in February. In previous years, the draw was held in late April. Seifert also reminds people that the Reserve-a-Site program begins on Jan. 1. He said long weekends do tend to book up early and encourages people to make use of their program so they aren’t disappointed down the road. “The most popular time is July and August, people are booking their holidays, so availability for July and the first half of August, they go quick.” Half of the CypressPark sites can be reserved while the other half are occupied on a first come, first serve basis, Seifert added. |
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