Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Yun Liang is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management at the Pennsylvania State University. Her academic interest is to combine social media data analysis with conservation in national parks or protected areas.

Bing Pan, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management at Pennsylvania State University, University Park. His research interests include data analytics, tourism big data, destination marketing, and the benefits of travel.

Guangqing Chi, Ph.D., is an associate professor of rural sociology and demography and director of the Computational and Spatial Analysis Core of the Pennsylvania State University. His research is focused on socio-environmental systems by developing spatial and Big Data analytic methods. He leads generalizing Twitter data for social science research.

Abstract (150 Words)

Timely and accurate visitation data will ensure appropriate visitor management in national parks. However, limited research explored the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on national park visitation and diversity in visitor groups. Identifying under-representative visitor groups and understanding their responses to visit national parks in the COVID-19 pandemic will help park managers to implement innovative marketing and planning solutions to attract more diverse visitors. Therefore, the main research question of this proposed study is: What demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of visitors (e.g., age, gender, race/ethnicity, education level, income level, employment status, and origins of states) impacted national park visitation in the COVID-19 pandemic? The proposed research will establish a deep understanding of diverse visitors to park visitations.

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Who visits Yellowstone National Park during the COVID-19 pandemic? A gravity model analysis by mobile device data

Timely and accurate visitation data will ensure appropriate visitor management in national parks. However, limited research explored the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on national park visitation and diversity in visitor groups. Identifying under-representative visitor groups and understanding their responses to visit national parks in the COVID-19 pandemic will help park managers to implement innovative marketing and planning solutions to attract more diverse visitors. Therefore, the main research question of this proposed study is: What demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of visitors (e.g., age, gender, race/ethnicity, education level, income level, employment status, and origins of states) impacted national park visitation in the COVID-19 pandemic? The proposed research will establish a deep understanding of diverse visitors to park visitations.