The Eppley Center for Parks and Public Lands is excited to share completion of successful collaborative project with our partners at the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC). Over the summer, Eppley staff travelled overseas to Europe to implement in-person data collection for an ABMC Visitor Use and Satisfaction Study. This phase of the three-year project, conducted between May and August 2024, extended the study, which kicked off in 2021, to three additional ABMC sites: Flanders Field American Cemetery (Waregem, Belgium), Montsec American Monument (Montsec, France), and Rhone American Cemetery (Draguignan, France).
Each Eppley survey collection team, consisting of a program manager and bilingual data collection assistant, gathered valuable insights over several days at each site, focusing on visitor experiences, satisfaction levels, and site usage. Data collection occurred in six languages, English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, and Italian.
These efforts mark a significant expansion of the study, which has now surveyed ABMC visitors at 11 sites in Europe and one site in the Philippines. The study findings are intended to enhance ABMC’s understanding of visitor experiences across the diverse memorial, monuments and cemeteries ABMC manages across the world for the U.S. The data collected will be instrumental in informing future management, visitor use, and interpretive approaches for ABMC sites. The Eppley Center is proud to contribute to this important initiative and looks forward to the continued analysis and application of the study’s findings.