National Parks to Charge International Visitors More to Pay Down Maintenance Backlog
A modest proposal at no cost to taxpayers.
Ahead of Independence Day, the Trump administration announced a new commission to conserve outdoor spaces and National Parks. The newly-formed Make America Beautiful Again (MABA) Commission was born out of the following reasons.
The executive order explained:
Years of mismanagement, regulatory overreach, and neglect of routine maintenance require action. Land-use restrictions have stripped hunters, fishers, hikers, and outdoorsmen of access to public lands that belong to them. These bureaucratic restrictions have undermined outdoor traditions and threatened conservation funding.
Among MABA’s top priorities is hiking National Park fees for international visitors, who currently pay the same entrance rate fees, about $25 to $35 per vehicle, as domestic visitors. The rationale for this price increase is to help offset the over $23 billion deferred maintenance backlog plaguing the National Park Service (NPS). This proposal has long been championed by the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC)—a Montana-based free market environmental group.
The Congressional Research Service defines deferred maintenance as “maintenance that was not performed as scheduled or as needed and was put off to a future time.” The NPS deferred maintenance backlog ballooned from $14 billion to nearly $23 billion during the four years of the Biden-Harris administration.
PERC argued in their June 2025 “The Economics of Awe” study that increasing international fees at Yellowstone National Park, currently facing a $1.5 billion maintenance backlog, won’t impact visitation by foreigners. Their report argues the park could hypothetically implement a $100 surcharge for foreign visitors to Yellowstone National Park. In doing so, the policy change could potentially raise $55 million annually from international visitors—which is five times the existing revenue generated by foreigners.
The U.S. isn’t the first to experiment with this. Some National Parks outside of the U.S. already charge international visitors a higher premium to visit in order to help maintain parks and bolster conservation efforts. Most notably, Galapagos National Park, overseen by the Ecuadorian government, charges international visitors $200 to visit.
The Great American Outdoors Act, signed into law by President Trump during his first term, is geared towards addressing park infrastructure and park maintenance challenges. The second Trump administration desires to build up on the successes of this seminal conservation law through these MABA efforts.
2024 was a record year for the National Park Service and its 433 units, with over 332 million visitors—besting a previous 2016 record with 330 million visitors.
With more Americans expected to visit public lands this summer, the federal government is taking the necessary steps to be fiscally responsible while making the park experience more enjoyable and readily accessible to all visitors—domestic and international.