Luray, Virginia: In response to feedback from the commercial tour industry, the National Park Service (NPS) is standardizing commercial use authorization (CUA) requirements and fees for road-based commercial tour operators. Currently, road-based commercial tour operators must navigate permitting processes and associated fees that can vary from park to park. The NPS defines road-based commercial tours as one or more persons traveling by vehicle on an improved roadway:
·On an itinerary that someone has packaged and sold for leisure/recreational purposes and
·Provides no other services except those that are incidental to road-based travel in an area unit of the NPS (on-board interpretation and incidental stops at visitor centers, restaurants, wayside exhibits, etc.).
At present, commercial road-based tour buses entering Shenandoah National Park are not required to have a CUA and enter the park by paying the commercial tour fee at entrance stations.
Beginning Oct. 1, 2019, each commercial road-based tour company entering Shenandoah National Park will be required to possess or obtain a Commercial Road-Based Tour CUA. There will be a $300 application fee for this Commercial Road-Based Tour CUA and CUA holders will pay Shenandoah’s $15 individual entrance fee for each passenger upon entry at the park’s entrance stations. Visitors on the road-based tour will not be allowed to use passes or previous entry receipts.
One hundred percent of collected CUA application fees stay within the collecting park and are used to recover the administrative costs of receiving, reviewing, and processing CUA applications and required reports.
Shenandoah’s Commercial Use Authorization webpage https://www.nps.gov/shen/learn/management/commercial-use-authorizations.htm will display updated Shenandoah-specific information regarding Road Based Commercial Bus Tours starting in January 2019. Meanwhile, please visit the Road-based Commercial Tour CUA Information section on the NPS Commercial Use authorization website at https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/commercial-use-authorizations.htm for more information.
Tags: shenandoah national park
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
