National parks are increasingly popular for both nature conservation and ecotourism, leading to higher demand for recreational activities. This study focuses on understanding the differences in preferences for recreational attributes within China’s Yellow River Mouth National Park. By examining how people’s reference points influence their preferences, the study aims to provide targeted recommendations for park management. The study utilized discrete choice experiments to collect information on preferences for five characteristics (amount of vegetation, clarity of water, amount of litter, congestion at attractions, and cost of tickets) and examined the data using mixed logit models and hierarchical Bayesian logit models. The findings show that there is a significant asymmetry in the public’s preferences for the park’s natural and management attributes, which has important implications for park planning and management. Specifically, people have higher preferences for vegetation coverage and water clarity but lower preferences for the quantity of garbage and ticket prices. The level of crowding at tourist attractions has a significant impact on preferences, and reference-dependent effects also play a role, with variations observed in the reference-dependence parameters across different attributes. However, factors such as environmental attention, recreational satisfaction, recreational importance, age, education level, and average monthly income do not have a significant influence on preferences for the five attributes.