MONTGOMERY-Ten Alabama state parks have been awarded the 2015 Certificate of Excellence from TripAdvisor, a travel website featuring traveler-generated content and reviews. The award celebrates establishments that provide excellent guest experiences and consistently achieve positive reviews on the TripAdvisor website, tripadvisor.com.
The 2015 Certificate of Excellence winners for Alabama State Parks are DeSoto, Gulf, Joe Wheeler, Monte Sano, Cathedral Caverns, Cheaha, Chewacla, Lake Guntersville, Oak Mountain and Wind Creek.
Eight of these parks also received the award in 2014. Two parks, Cheaha and Wind Creek, improved their rating since last year to receive the award in 2015.
“In the past two years, 11 of our state parks have received Certificate of Excellence
Greg Lein, Alabama State Parks Director
awards from TripAdvisor,” said Greg Lein, Alabama State Parks Director. “We are extremely proud that our customers regard our parks in such a consistently positive manner. The entire parks division deeply appreciates our staff, park volunteers, and the customers who make these awards possible. They have been especially encouraging to our staff during the recent difficult budget experiences.”
Since 2014, Alabama State Parks has conducted a series of open house and public listening sessions across the state. The sessions offer the public an opportunity to speak about state park related issues and provide insight into how the parks are funded. During the sessions, Lein identifies a list of parks called the “Big 10” that generate the majority of the parks system’s yearly attendance numbers and operating budget. Each park in the Big 10 received a Certificate of Excellence in 2014 or 2015.
“Joe Wheeler, Monte Sano, Cathedral Caverns, Guntersville, DeSoto, Cheaha, Oak Mountain, Wind Creek, Lakepoint and Gulf comprise the park system’s Big 10. These 10 parks account for 94 percent of the entire park system’s guest revenue and attendance,” Lein said. “As a ‘user pay system’ it is especially gratifying to know that these 10 parks, which are so significant to the operational revenue for all 22 parks in the state parks system, are being honored with awards from a travel and hospitality business like TripAdvisor and praised by our customers.”
Alabama State Parks is encouraging customers at the smaller state parks to post their observations and experiences at those parks on TripAdvisor as well.
“We hope to use these recent awards as examples at some of our smaller parks,” Lein said. “The more our customers at the smaller parks share their positive experiences the better off Alabama’s state park system will be.”
To learn more about TripAdvisor’s Certificate of Excellence and read traveler reviews of Alabama’s state parks, visit tripadvisor.com. To learn more about how Alabama State Parks is funded, visit alapark.com/about-alabama-state-parks.
MEDIA RELEASE/Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
