Number of duners falling

Overall attendance is down for the second consecutive year at the Imperial Sand Dunes, according to officials at the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the popular recreation site.

David Briery, a spokesman for BLM's California Public Affairs office, said despite attendance being down, he still expects large crowds for the four-day Thanksgiving holiday, which is traditionally the most popular weekend at the dunes.

"I would guess that there being fewer people there would make it more attractive for the duners because they would have more room to recreate," Briery said.

Thanksgiving weekend has traditionally been seen as the big kickoff for the winter sand duning season as huge numbers of local people and thousands of others from California and elsewhere take their RVs and sand toys out for some fun.

The busiest weekends typically are Thanksgiving, New Year's, Presidents Day, Halloween, Martin Luther King Day and Easter.

Last year, 172,000 people visited the dunes over the four-day Thanksgiving holiday, compared with 166,000 in 2007 and 198,000 in 2006.

So far this year, 163,500 visitors have come to the dunes, compared with 247,100 this same time last year.

Since the unofficial start of the dunes season began seven weeks ago, which was on the week ending Oct. 7, Briery said there has only been one week in which the attendance was about the same as it was the previous year.

Briery said nearly 30,000 people visited the dunes the week ending Nov. 16, which was only about 900 people fewer than the previous year.

Attendance at the dunes so far this year has been:

For the week ending Oct. 4 — 3,600

For the week ending Oct. 12 — 15,600

For the week ending Oct. 19 — 23,300

For the week ending Oct. 28 — 21,200

For the week ending Nov. 2 — 65,500 (including Halloween)

For the week ending Nov. 9 — 8,900

For the week ending Nov. 16 — 30,000

Briery said that Halloween has become the pre-Thanksgiving, and in better economic times about 100,000 would attend the dunes during that week.

However, there was also about a 45 percent drop in the number of people who visited the dunes during the Halloween weekend this year as compared to other years.

This year, 65,500 people visited the dunes for Halloween, compared with 90,000 the year before.

Briery said there is no way to tell whether they will have that same type of decrease in attendance for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

"We just don't know whether we will see that same kind of dropoff this year for the week of Thanksgiving," Briery said.

The likely culprit for the declining attendance, Briery said, is the poor economy, which is causing more people to stay at home.

"People are either saving their money or may be out of jobs," Briery said. "Between the two, we think those may be the reasons."
 
Duners have also been complaining about stricter enforcement and say it is making it less fun to go there now