Wright-Dunbar Business Village News

Afternoon Tea with Katharine Wright
Go back in time and visit with Katharine Wright, sister of the famous Wright brothers, as she relates stories of Wright family Thanksgiving celebrations. Enjoy a snack and beverage and make special Thanksgiving crafts to take home.

The activities will take place at the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center on Saturday, November 12th from 1:00am until 3:00pm. All activities are free and open to the public. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Part of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center is located at 16 S. Williams Street. It is open daily 8:30am until 5:00pm except for Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.

For more information, contact the National Park Service at (937) 225-7705.

Dayton National Park Visitor Survey Results
In 1982, The National Park Service concluded that it needed to learn more about its visitors in order to effectively administer our National Parks. To accomplish this goal, the Visitor Services Project, based out of the University of Idaho Park Studies Unit, conducts visitor surveys at select National Park units every summer. These surveys seek to learn from visitors; who are you, where are you from, what do you do here, what do you enjoy, and what is it that makes parks important to you? From July 10-18, 2004, the Park Studies Unit turned its attention to the park units of Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP. 280, of the 373 people asked to participate, returned mail-back questionnaires giving report generators a 75% response rate to work with.

The survey results offer valuable information about our visitors and their activities within the park. The two largest age groups to enter the park last summer included children under the age of 10 and adults between the ages of 56-60. Visitors came from 39 states and Washington D.C. Ohio (59%) and Michigan (4%) were the two states from which most visitors were residents. International visitors comprised two percent of all responses. Of the non-local respondents who visited the park, 26% had visited the Dayton area to see friends and family, 24% arrived specifically to view Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP, 22% were in town to see the U.S. Air Force Museum, 15% were in the area on business, and 13% came to Dayton to see nearby attractions. 62% of those who visited arrived as part of a family group and 65% of visitors who were not from the area did not extend their visit by staying overnight.

Results indicate that the three most popular park sites last summer included the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center and Aviation Trail Visitor Center, the Wright Brothers Aviation Center at Carillon Park, and The Wright Cycle Company Building. The average time spent at these locations ranged from half an hour at The Wright Cycle Company Building to an hour and a half at Carillon Park. 99% of all respondents indicated that the service they received park-wide was either 'good' or 'very good'. This rating is higher than the comparable 81% averaged by 21 National Park Service visitor centers recently studied by the Visitor Services Project.

Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP survey results will be shared with park partners to inform them about how park's facilities are faring and whom they are serving. Last summer, 41% of the park's visitation came from out of state. The park would like to see more local visitors and will use survey information to plan programs aimed at increasing visitation by this group. Complete results are available at the following website: www.psu.uidaho.edu/vsp.reports.