President Donald Trump’s executive order increasing fees for foreign tourists visiting Yosemite and all other national parks, dated Thursday and touted Friday by Trump in a Fourth of July speech, has irked some people in Tuolumne County, where tourism is annually touted as the region’s leading economic engine.
“The order directs the Secretary of the Interior to increase fees only for foreign visitors, while making national parks more affordable and enjoyable for American families,” states a July 3 White House fact sheet headlined “President Donald J. Trump Makes Our National Parks Great Again.”
At the same time, the order increases national park access for American families by directing the National Park Service to ensure U.S. residents receive “priority access in any permitting or reservation systems,” the fact sheet states.
Trump’s order also revokes an Obama-era presidential memorandum, “Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in Our National Parks, National Forests, and Other Public Lands and Waters.” Trump campaigned last year on a platform that included targeting DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — policies at federal levels.
Tuolumne County Supervisor Steve Griefer, whose district includes Groveland and the Highway 120 business corridor that relies heavily on Yosemite tourists, is opposed to Trump’s order, which he described as a two-tiered fee system charging foreign tourists a higher fee to get into Yosemite.
“I don’t agree,” Griefer said in a phone interview Monday. “I think that would hurt tourism locally. I think it would send a bad message to the tourist industry. Individuals coming to the area would take that information back to where they were from, potentially giving a stigma, a black eye to this community.”
Griefer said he favors offering discounts to locals, not charging foreigners more.
“I don’t think that executive order is good for tourism, specifically on the Highway 120 corridor,” Griefer said.
Griefer said Monday he has already urged U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, to oppose Trump’s order.
“Whereas I understand, the President is attempting to raise funds, on the backs of foreign tourists, to pay for services within the parks, I do not believe this is the way to go about it,” Griefer said in a message he sent to McClintock’s staff and shared with The Union Democrat.
“The average tourist who comes to California, specifically to go to Yosemite, will not understand why they are being ‘penalized’ for coming to the park just because they are a foreign tourist.”
Griefer said he is concerned tourists who will have to pay more because they are not from the U.S. will go home and tell everyone in their homeland that there is an additional fee, and therefore “those tourists will not book trips to come to our national parks, not just California, but within the United States.”
Griefer said he’s unsure what percentage of tourism dollars spent by Yosemite visitors comes from foreign tourists, but he’s sure it’s significant.
“Everybody wants to come to Yosemite,” Griefer said. “Everybody wants to come here, and I just think if you put a label on a tourist from another nation, it might deter those individuals from their home countries from coming here because it’s a stigma, and I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s good for the industry, and I don’t think it’s good for our community.”
McClintock, the Mother Lode congressman whose 5th District includes Tuolumne County and the other counties that are home to Yosemite, told Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last month, “I’m not entirely sure we want to discourage international visitors from visiting our parks either, but we need to be sure that their capacity can accommodate those who want to come and that the park staff is oriented toward the visitor experience first and foremost.”
McClintock’s staff shared the congressman’s remarks from Burgum’s appearance in June before the House Natural Resources Committee, of which McClintock is a senior member.
“One of the things that we’re looking closely at is I think we’re way undercharging as a nation for international visitors,” Burgum said before McClintock. “We’ve done a study of what gets charged when you, if you were going to go see the, you know, the gorillas in Rwanda, if you’re going to go to Galapagos Islands, you know, it’s $500 a day or higher in some of these locations.”
Scott Gediman, a spokesman for Yosemite National Park, said Monday that entrance frees to all national parks are set by federal government people in Washington, D.C.
“They tell us when they change and how to implement,” Gediman stated in an email. “We have not received further guidance, so we don’t know how much folks will be charged, when, etc. We have no idea when this further guidance is coming down.”
Tom Crosby, president of the Tuolumne County Business Council referred questions about Trump’s order to council members Lisa Mayo and Amariah Richards, who work for the county Visitors Bureau.
“My only input would be an appreciation for encouraging fellow Americans to experience Yosemite and the Gold Rush County of Tuolumne, and plan to stay a few days as there is so much to see,” Crosby said.
Mayo, president and chief executive officer for Visit Tuolumne County, said Monday that an increase to fees for international travelers to go to a U.S. national park is another roadblock to encouraging international visitation in Tuolumne County and Yosemite.
“The timing comes amidst other challenges that are perceived as unwelcoming, including a political climate that is discouraging international travel as well as the delayed Yosemite reservation system announcement that has definitely hurt international tourism this year,” Mayo said.
International travelers are a key segment of visitors as they tend to stay longer and spend more money in a destination, Mayo said. Places like Tuolumne County that are dependent on tourism need and welcome these international visitors.
“Additionally, as we look ahead to welcoming the world to the U.S., and California in particular, through the World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, as a destination with a national park, we want to be able to leverage those events to encourage visitation to the rural regions of California, both pre and post event,” Mayo said. “The national parks are a huge draw for encouraging that added visitation.”
Mayo referred to the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, which is planned June 11 to July 19 next summer in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. World Cup soccer matches are already scheduled to be played in Santa Clara and Los Angeles. The 2028 Summer Olympics are scheduled to be staged in Los Angeles.
Visit Tuolumne County does not have specific numbers showing how international visitors contribute to the county economy, Mayo said, “but anecdotally we know from our lodging partners that they are a significant segment of guests.”
Visit Tuolumne County has some information from a May 2025 report about tourism impacts in the county on its website, www.visittuolumne.com.
“If you have a local business, no matter the type, then tourism is your business!” the website states. “Tourism is the number one private-sector industry in Tuolumne County. In 2024, total travel spending in Tuolumne County was $307.8 million!”
The May 2025 report came from consultant Dean Runyon Associates, of Portland, Oregon. A Runyon employee said Monday in a phone interview that its most recent statewide report, “The Economic Impact of Travel in California” for the 2024 calendar year includes a brief summary of international visitors’ spending.
International visitors spent $26.5 billion in California in 2024, comprising 19.3% of all visitor spending in California, page 17 of the statewide, 283-page Runyon report says. The first photo in the May 2025 report shows El Capitan and tourists and their vehicles in Yosemite Valley.
In 2024, spending by domestic visitors accounted for 80.7% of all visitor spending in California. On average, international visitors constitute 18.1% of total travel spending in California, the statewide Runyon report says.
Runyon Associates did not break down international visitors’ spending in individual counties, including Tuolumne County.
Shirley Horn with the Yosemite Highway 120 Chamber of Commerce also criticized Trump’s order.
“At the highest level, the President’s order will not encourage goodwill with our international visitors,” Horn said Monday. “Locally, this order creates one more barrier for foreign visitors to consider when choosing where to spend their vacation dollars.”
Since January, the American public has been bombarded with news about cuts to national parks and national forest staff, selling off of public lands surrounding national parks, and now this, Horn said.
“Will granting U.S. residents ‘priority status’ to permitting and reservation systems be enough to overcome those concerns?” she asked. “That remains to be seen.”
Potential visitors make decisions about vacation spending based on financial and emotional factors, Horn said, including things like “inflated foreign entry fees vs. the perceived value of the experience.”
If visitors perceive they are not welcome, they are less likely to choose Tuolumne County or other domestic destinations, regardless of the actual entry fee, which may be a small fraction of their overall international travel budget, Horn said.
“For our many tourism-dependent small businesses, this adds yet another worry to their growing list of financial and operational concerns,” Horn said. “Our many small businesses, nonprofits, and communities welcome all visitors to Tuolumne County and are both proud and eager to share the beauty and wonder of Yosemite National Park.”
Horn emphasized it’s important for individuals, families, and groups to know they can also experience a wide variety of experiences in Tuolumne County without stepping a foot into Yosemite.
“Anyone in the industry will tell you that it’s a long established fact that international visitors stay longer and spend more money across more sectors of our economy, so this latest order is just more bad news being heaped on tourism and related industries,” said Teri Marshall, director of marketing and communications for First Light Resorts, which include Evergreen Lodge, Rush Creek Lodge, and Firefall Ranch.
“Has anyone mentioned that Yosemite is a UNESCO World Heritage Site?” Marshall asked. “Anyway, given the technical constraints on park ticketing systems, it’s hard to imagine that anything this complex would actually be implemented. So we will continue to focus considerable effort on making our international visitors feel welcome and valued, as we do with every guest.”
A current silver lining to recent bad news in tourism is good news for people who want to take a last-minute trip to Yosemite this summer, Marshall said.
“Pretty much everyone in the Yosemite region has rooms available, and there are plenty of peak hour reservations available on Rec.gov,” Marshall said. “In my decades of working in the Yosemite market, I’ve never seen it so easy to access the park in summer without advance reservations.”
State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, whose Senate District 4 is home to Yosemite and includes Tuolumne County, said Monday that charging higher fees for foreign visitors is a common policy worldwide that supports conservation and fairness, repeating a phrase from the White House fact sheet on Trump’s executive order.
“This order puts Americans first by ensuring U.S. residents receive priority access in permits and reservations and by investing in improvements that will protect and enhance our iconic parks,” Alvarado-Gil said. “American taxpayers fund these treasures, and it’s only fair they receive benefits that match their contributions. While foreign visitors do play an important role in our local economy, this policy helps balance access for more Americans to experience our beautiful national parks.”
Actions of the federal government concerning foreign visitors at national parks have no bearing at California State Parks, which welcome all visitors from around the world, the state parks Central Valley District superintendent, Danielle Gerhart, said Monday. Fees to visit state parks remain the same for everyone.
To read the text of Trump’s July 3 order increasing entry fees for foreign tourists, see https://bit.ly/4eBeHVj. To read the fact sheet headlined “President Donald J. Trump Makes Our National Parks Great Again” see https://bit.ly/44OZLPQ.
