The $100 “foreigner tax” coming to America’s 11 most visited parks in 2026

Annual Pass Triples for Non-Americans

Starting January 1, 2026, visiting Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon will cost a lot more if you’re not American.

The Department of the Interior just announced a $100 per person surcharge for foreign visitors at 11 of the country’s most popular national parks.

The annual pass is jumping from $80 to $250 for non-residents. Americans keep the old prices.

The timing is what makes this interesting, because the parks are already facing a $23 billion repair backlog, foreign tourism was dropping before this announcement, and the whole thing traces back to an executive order Trump signed on the Fourth of July.

Americans Stay at $80, Foreigners Pay $250

The Department of the Interior announced the new pricing on November 25, 2025, calling it a “resident-focused fee structure that puts American families first.”

U.S. residents will continue paying $80 for the America the Beautiful annual pass, while non-residents will pay $250.

That’s more than triple the American rate. Visitors buying an annual pass will need to input their ZIP code and provide a photo ID to get the U.S. resident price.

The change applies across the entire federal recreation system, not just individual parks.

The $100 Surcharge Hits 11 Parks

Foreign tourists who don’t purchase the annual pass will pay a $100 per person fee on top of the standard entrance fee at 11 of the most visited national parks.

The surcharge applies to Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion.

Most of these parks currently charge $35 per vehicle or $20 per person for regular admission. So a family of four from Germany visiting Yellowstone would now pay $435 instead of $35.

Trump Signed the Order on July 4th Weekend

President Trump signed the executive order on July 3, 2025, directing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “develop a strategy to increase revenue and improve the recreational experience at national parks by appropriately increasing entrance fees and recreation pass fees for nonresidents.”

At a rally in Iowa that evening, Trump announced the signing and said “the national parks will be about America first. ” The order gave Burgum months to work out the details before the November announcement.

Parks Are Drowning in Deferred Repairs

The money is supposed to address a growing crisis.

The National Park Service’s deferred maintenance backlog reached $23.26 billion in fiscal year 2023, more than double what it was a decade earlier.

Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the National Mall in Washington each have more than $1 billion in repair needs alone.

Roads need repaving, trails are crumbling, visitor centers are outdated, and water systems are failing across the system.

Yellowstone Alone Could Raise $55 Million

For Yellowstone park alone, the $100 charge could generate $55 million annually to help fix deteriorating trails and aging bridges, according to Brian Yablonski with the Property and Environment Research Center.

If the charges for foreigners were extended to park sites nationwide, Yablonski said it could generate more than $1 billion from an estimated 14 million international visitors annually.

The Interior Department’s 2026 budget proposal estimated the surcharge would generate more than $90 million annually.

Rangers Will Check IDs at the Gate

Starting in the new year, Park Rangers will ask visitors for identification, and those without U.S.-issued IDs will pay the nonresident surcharge.

How exactly this will work at busy entrances during peak season remains unclear.

The National Parks Conservation Association said there are many questions about implementation that the group will raise with the Department of Interior.

Foreign Tourism Was Already Falling

The fee hike comes at an unusual moment. International visits to the U.S. are expected to drop from 72.4 million in 2024 to 67. 9 million in 2025, the first decline since 2020.

The World Travel & Tourism Council projects the U.S. will lose $12. 5 billion in international visitor spending in 2025, making America the only country among 184 economies forecast to see a decline.

Canadian visitors have dropped sharply, and arrivals from Europe are down double digits.

Yellowstone’s Foreign Visitors Already Cut in Half

Yellowstone has reported a decrease in international visitation, down from approximately 30% in 2018 to 14. 8% in 2024.

That decline happened before any surcharge existed.

Tour operators near the park say about 30% of their customers are foreigners, and they’re unsure how the new fees will affect bookings.

A Yellowstone tour operator said the charge represents “a pretty big hike” for his foreign clientele and wondered whether they’ll still visit national parks even if they come to the country.

Other Countries Already Do This

The U.S. isn’t the first country to charge foreigners more.

Foreign visitors to Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands pay $200 per adult, while Ecuadorian nationals pay only $30.

Egypt, Thailand, and Cambodia also charge higher entry fees for international tourists to visit national parks and attractions.

Researchers have found that entry fees are generally a small fraction of overall trip costs for visitors from abroad, and higher fees would have a negligible effect on park visitation from international travelers.

Americans Get Eight Free Days in 2026

The Department also announced resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026, including Constitution Day on September 17 and Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday on October 27.

Other free days include Memorial Day, the Fourth of July weekend, and June 14, which the Department listed as “Flag Day/President Trump’s birthday.”

Veterans Day, which was one of the parks’ eight free days open to everyone in 2025, will now be reserved for U.S. residents only.

Gateway Towns Brace for the Impact

At the Whistling Swan Motel just outside Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana, owner Mark Howser estimates that about 15% of his customers are foreigners from Canada, China, India, Spain, France, Germany, and elsewhere.

He called the surcharge “a sure-fire way of discouraging people from visiting Glacier” and said it would hurt local businesses that cater to foreign travelers.

The parks draw visitors who spend money on hotels, restaurants, and guides for miles around.

Whether the new fees will actually discourage travel or just shift revenue from local businesses to the federal government is something gateway towns will find out starting January 1.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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