- Uncertainty fueled by DOGE-led cuts appears to be hitting summer travel.
- Businesses near public lands said summer bookings are down, with tourists choosing to go elsewhere.
- National parks could be less crowded this summer, but there are still a lot of unknowns.
The DOGE days of summer are on the way.
In its quest for government efficiency, the Elon Musk-linked office appears to be screwing up Americans’ summer plans. Now it looks like it could be the first summer in a long time where travel hot spots won’t be completely overrun with tourists — but it’s not entirely clear yet what conditions those destinations will be in.
National parks are facing potential staff reductions, reduced services, and trail closures as a result of the Trump administration’s spending cuts, with park workers and advocates warning they still don’t know what this summer will look like. The mass uncertainty has already altered some Americans’ summer plans and dug into the local economies that depend on the business summer usually brings.
Take Yosemite National Park. The local population surges every summer as more than half a million people make their way to the valley each month, but this year already looks very different.
“People have been canceling reservations they already made and the amount of reservations that should be getting in right now, that’s been slowed down significantly,” Shirley Horn, the board secretary and treasurer of the Highway 120 Chamber of Commerce, which represents businesses along the iconic thoroughfare, told Business Insider.
Park advocates say the cuts could impact everything from visitor safety to bathroom maintenance, while business groups near the park say the uncertainty alone has taken a toll on their bookings, with tourists simply choosing to vacation elsewhere — to destinations untouched by DOGE-induced doubt and unpredictability.
Tourists are already rethinking their summer trips
“Summer bookings are way down over what we’ve ever seen before,” said Lee Zimmerman, the co-owner of First Light Resorts, which owns or manages three resorts near Yosemite: Evergreen Lodge, Rush Creek Lodge and Spa, and Firefall Ranch.
Zimmerman told BI they are down thousands of booked rooms across the three properties, even though the main booking season for summer travel is typically January to March.
The Trump administration slashed thousands of jobs at the agencies that manage public lands, like the National Park Service and the US Forest Service. After a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to reinstate fired probationary workers, NPS told BI it would work to comply with the order while the White House appeals. The National Park Conservation Association said Thursday NPS had authorized the rehiring of the nearly 1,000 probationary employees whose jobs were terminated.
“This chaotic whiplash is no way to manage the Park Service, especially as they are welcoming millions of visitors right now,” Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the park advocacy group, said in a statement.
It’s unclear how that rehiring will play out or what could happen on appeal, so staffing levels at parks this summer remain uncertain.
The US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the US Forest Service, also told BI it was working on rehiring the fired probationary employees and said it intends “to maintain access to recreation opportunities to the greatest degree possible.”
There’s been other disruptions, too. At Yosemite, for instance, NPS last month suspended the timed-entry reservation system, which required visitors to reserve a set date and time to enter the park. Horn said not 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?
The park service has still not said if the reservation system will be in place this summer, but Zimmerman said at this point, if the park decided to use one, it would be a “disaster” since it could disrupt trips that have already been planned.
Meanwhile on the east coast, Paul Niedzwiecki, the CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, told BI that bookings of hotels and short-term lodging are currently down more than 5% for the peak season of July and August in Cape Cod, a scenic peninsula in Massachusetts that’s home to the Cape Cod National Seashore. If lodging rentals stay down, he said, that has a compounding effect on other local businesses like restaurants and outdoor recreation shops.
Niedzwiecki also expects to see a decline in visitors from Canada, adding the chamber has already heard from a number of recurring Canadian visitors who have been “very direct” about not wanting to visit this year “because they don’t feel welcome given the state of national politics.”
Horn said businesses in the Highway 120 corridor near Yosemite are also seeing fewer international visitors book summer trips to the area, something that is typically done well in advance.
Now might actually be a good time to visit a typically busy destination — with some precautions
Jonathan Farrington, CEO of the Yosemite/Mariposa County Tourism Bureau, said they do not believe the visitor experience at Yosemite will be greatly impacted by the federal government change-ups. He noted that the park typically has nearly 800 full-time and seasonal staff in the summer and that about 35 positions have been cut, including 10 who were let go and around 25 who took the deferred resignation offer.
The most important thing, he said, will be the park filling the around 300 seasonal positions. Though the administration’s hiring freeze initially applied to seasonal workers at national parks, it later reversed course and said those hirings would go forward.
Zimmerman, of the Yosemite resorts, also said that he is not concerned about the visitor experience in the park this year, and that now might actually be a good time to visit. Yosemite, like other popular national parks, has faced overcrowding concerns in recent summers.
He said the general confusion and concerns around staffing, reservations, and access to parks could be contributing to people staying away. “Uncertainty makes it difficult for visitors to discern what’s really going on and to commit to taking their vacation in the park,” he said.
For folks who do decide to visit public lands this year, it’s still not clear what they will find. Park advocates have warned that if the staffing and funding cuts remain, summer visitors can expect a more restricted, if not more risky, experience.
“Visitor centers will close, lines will grow longer, and basic maintenance — such as cleaning restrooms and facilities — will suffer,” Phil Francis, the chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks Executive Council, told BI of what could happen if parks are severely understaffed. “Millions of Americans who cherish their national parks may find them inaccessible, poorly maintained, or unsafe.”
Carl Fisher, the executive director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, an environmental advocacy nonprofit, said visitors to places like Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park could see more trails and hiking areas being closed or having reduced hours, which could cut people’s vacations short, he said. And if there are fewer workers to maintain them, the areas that do remain open may become more dangerous for visitors.
“These are natural, wild, dynamic environments, and you can mess yourself up just crawling over and around deadfall. People can get lost because, well, they won’t be able to find the trail,” Fisher told BI, adding that it poses a significant risk for inexperienced or first-time visitors.
Small businesses near national parks could feel the pinch too
Local businesses like gear rental outfitters and guides rely on open and accessible parks to offer their services, said Grace Templeton, who works on community engagement projects at an outdoor recreation advocacy group called Wyoming Pathways.
If trails are closed or poorly maintained, Templeton said, businesses that offer everything from mountain shuttle services to climbing guides to fishing expeditions could be upended. She’s already heard from at least one business that’s “very concerned” about the lifeline of its business: access to trails.
Templeton also said that without federal funds for projects like trail development, local economies that rely on tourism could take a hit. For example, she said, her organization added a trail in the Thermopolis area of Wyoming, “and now they’re getting tons of mountain bike tourism,” adding “it’s very important for these trails, increased quality of life for residents, and drawing visitors in.”
Horn, of the Chamber of Commerce near Yosemite, said the cuts and uncertainty have made it hard for local businesses that rely on seasonal workers to know how many people to hire for the summer, which could lead to them being under- or overstaffed.
Right now she said businesses near Yosemite are trying to get the message out that the national parks will be open this summer, but that the lack of information from the park service has made it unclear to many what exactly being open will look like.
“It’s what I call the FUD factor,” she said. “The fear, uncertainty, and doubt that happens when these kinds of external shocks go through economies and local communities.”
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