Visitation to the National Park System in 2017 basically was flat from the year before, with 330,882,751 visitors counted, down a tad from the 330,971,689 tallied in 2016, the National Park Service's centennial year.
Whether that slight dip was due to post-centennial declining interest in the parks, or related to the overall decline in international tourism to the United States that was noticed in 2016 and increased since President Trump took office, remains to be deduced.
However, the U.S. Commerce Department earlier this year reported that international travel to the United States during the first quarter of 2017 was off by about 700,000 compared to year-earlier figures. And that has drawn concern from tourism circles.
"... the U.S. is not as competitive today as it was two years ago in the global travel marketplace and we are losing market share to other countries," said U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow last month after the Commerce Department forecast a decline in international travel to the United States for all of 2017, followed by slow growth in the years to come.
The Visit U.S. Coalition attributed the decline to the strong U.S. dollar, which makes it more expensive to visit the United States than other countries, and "a perception that the U.S. is not welcoming to legitimate travelers."
While visitation to the National Park System in 2017 closely mirrored that in 2016, there were some trends worth noting:
* Concessionaire lodging overnights in 2017 numbered 3,437,279, up from 3,272,026 in 2016, but down from 3,678,262 in 2000;
* Tent camping overnights were 3,734,119, down from 3,858,162 in 2016, but up from 3,395,816 in 2000;
* RV overnights were 2,460,834, down from 2,543,221 in 2016, and down from 2,501,401 in 2000;
* Backcountry overnights were 2,074,773, down from 2,154,698 in 2016, but up from 1,935,276 in 2000;
* Total overnight stays were 14,803,755, down from 15,430,454, and down from 15,725,730 in 2000.
Of note is that the 2017 numbers were from 379 of the 417 units in the National Park System; in 2000, there were 382 units. So while opportunities have increased, traffic has stagnated in some areas over the past 17 years.
At the same time, parks such as Zion (4,504,812), Acadia (3,509,271), Grand Canyon (6,254,238), Great Smoky Mountains (11,338,893), Glacier (3,305,512), and some others, set visitation records last year.
Tops in visitor traffic in 2017 was Blue Ridge Parkway, with 16,093,765 visitors counted, or nearly 5 percent of the system total. At the bottom, visitation-wise, was Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve, with just 100 heads counted.
All that said, tracking visitation in the park system is somewhat of an inexact science. As noted, just 379 of the 417 units produced visitation tallies for last year. If you dive deeper into a specific park's counting methology, you'll find logs that reflect problems with counters. For instance, Blue Ridge Parkway staff in November 2017 noted that:
MP 85.9 - Counter appears to have not been cleared last month. Number reported is the reported number minus last month's total.
MP 199.4 - Ranger reported counter broken - 5-year-average reported.
MP 291.8 - Counter reported broken several months ago. - 5-year-average used.
MP 388.7 and 388.9 - Counters read very low with no closure to account for lower attendance. 5 year average used.
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Comments
I'm not surprised at the 'flat' numbers. No one wants to travel a long distance to a park, rent a cabin/hotel, etc. and then drive around for an hour looking for a parking space in Yosemite, Yellowstone and Sequoia. What a mess with large buses also driving in on narrow roads. I realize the parks need increased funding and I support all efforts to do so. It will take years to accomplish this issue.
After all the hubbub surrounding the centennial, I'm not surprised that visitation flattened out this year.
Yosemite NP visitation dropped by a shocking 14% (which was not at all in evidence when we visited on a busy August day). The heavy snowpack delayed opening of Tioga Road until June 29 and most of the higher elevation campgrounds still weren't open in early August, which scuttled our camping plans.
On the other hand, visits to President's Park increased almost 50% over 2016 (thanks to protests?). Maybe Trump is good for business after all!
Golden Gate NRA visitation dropped by more than 650,000, although I always question the methodology used to count visitors in such a sprawling unit with dozens of points of entry.
Almost 3 million fewer visitors drove on George Washington Memorial PKWY in 2017, which must be a result of methodological error.
If you just look at the "destination" parks in the sparsely populated western states (the five Utah National Parks, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone), visitation increased by a modest 2.7%. This seems like a more accurate barometer of visitor sentiment than urban or "day-tripper" parks on the coasts.
The fires at Yosemite probably also had some impact on visitation.
I agree with Pat. The crowding horror stories may be scaring people off.