On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order, withdrawing fees for the entry of foreign visitors to national parks, even since his administration seeks to reduce the costs of these parks by more than a third, reports Reuters.
The White House said that in the statement that additional income caused by an increase in tourists will collect hundreds of millions of dollars for projects to preserve the environment and maintenance to improve national parks.
The order was sent by the Ministry of the Interior, which follows the powers that control parks in order to increase the fees for the entry of foreign visitors to the parks, but it does not indicate the amount of new fees or the date of their entry into force.
It is not yet clear how many of the 433 parks of powers will be affected by a decision. Currently, he imposes about 100 parks for entry fees, and these fees differ from one site to another.
Trump’s decision takes place at a time when his administration offered a reduction by more than a billion dollars from the parking budget in the 2026 financial year, which is a reduction in more than a third of the agency’s budget in the previous year.
Over the past few years, visitors have continued to go to national parks in unprecedented numbers, since the number of visitors recorded a new peak of 331 million last year, which was six million by six million in 2023.
