Visitors to the Dales are more satisfied than ever, according to the National Park 2022 visitor survey, which began in 2002 – the most recent survey being in 2017. The survey also finds that more people visited the National Park last year to stroll and socialise, showing that tourists’ need to rekindle relationships with family and friends while taking in the scenery has grown since the Covid outbreak.
We have picked out an interesting selection of the results below:
Visitors to the YDNP are, in the vast majority of cases, very satisfied with their visit. The results to the 2022 survey show a continued increase in satisfaction levels compared to those in 2017, 2013, 2008, and 2002 with the proportion very satisfied with their visit increasing by 10 percentage points, from 73% in 2002 to 83% in 2022.
The 2022 survey results also show very high levels of recommendation for the YDNP area and are significantly higher than in 2017. Over nine out of ten visitors were very likely to recommend the area to friends and family.
Visitors on their first ever trip were more likely to be ‘staying visitors’ than ‘day visitors. This was also the case for visitors who were on their first visit in the last 12 months and may be related to geography of home address. First time visitors were also more likely to be from outside of the UK – almost one-in-five first time visitors were from outside of the UK
Over three-fifths of visitors said they have had a walk (for more than an hour) during their visit; a half said that walking was their main activity of their visit.