The National Park Service is modifying its entrance fees at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park to provide additional funding for infrastructure and maintenance needs.
Effective June 1, Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park fees will increase to $15 per vehicle, $7 per person walking in and $10 per motorcycle. Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau will have a new park specific annual pass that will cost $30 and allow unlimited entry into the park for the entire calendar year from the time of purchase.
A second fee increase Jan. 1, 2020, will be implemented, with entrance fees of $20 per vehicle, $15 per motorcycle and $10 per person (the receipt allows entry for seven days) and the annual park pass increasing to $35.
Effective Jan. 1, 2020, the entrance fees to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will be $30 per vehicle or $25 per motorcycle and $15 per pedestrian or bicyclist. The receipt allows entry for seven days.
The annual Tri-Park Pass, an annual pass that allows visitors unlimited entry to the three fee-charging national parks in Hawaii — Hawaii Volcanoes and Haleakala National Park and Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, will increase in phases. Starting June 1, the Tri-Park Pass will go from $30 to $50, and to $55 in January 2020.
Revenue from entrance fees remains in the National Park Service and helps ensure a quality experience for all who visit. At Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, at least 80 percent of entrance fees stay in the park and are devoted to spending that supports visitors. The other 20 percent of entrance fee income is shared with other national parks for their projects.
“When I began my tenure at Hawaii Volcanoes in 2004, the park was approaching its 100th anniversary, but it already looked 100 years old,” said Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Superintendent Cindy Orlando. “The centennial and subsequent years have seen additional stressors to park infrastructure, trails and historic buildings, and the corrosive environment of an erupting volcano doesn’t help.
“The $5 increase, effective in January 2020, will mitigate these effects as we continue to address deferred maintenance within the park.”
National parks have experienced record-breaking visitation, with more than 1.5 billion visitors in the past five years. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park had 2,016,702 visitors in 2017.
The additional revenue from entrance fees at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park will include a new roof at Jaggar Museum, the rehabilitation of the ‘Ohi‘a Wing into a cultural museum and archives, and improvements to the park’s water system and park trails, including heavily used front country trails such as Halema‘uma‘u and ‘Iliahi trails.