tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6651656564842797172.post6380261394069069367..comments2023-10-10T04:18:23.631-04:00Comments on The Smoky Mountain Hiking Blog: Visitation up 8% in the Smokies in 2014SmokyMountainshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12288538940523306530noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6651656564842797172.post-25211413172329268562015-01-12T11:25:06.471-05:002015-01-12T11:25:06.471-05:00Randy - if you go to the NPS stat report page for ...Randy - if you go to the NPS stat report page for the Smokies (https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/Reports/Park), click on the "Visitor Use Counting Procedures" near the bottom. This will pull up a PDF that explains how they do it. It's 3 pages, with an explanation on how each entrance is counted.<br /><br />To answer your question, they count the number of visits - not visitors. So if you drive in and out of the park 5 times during one day, that is counted as 5 visits.<br /><br />Even worse is the Blue Ridge Parkway that likes to tout itself as the most visited nat'l park unit (as opposed to a nat'l park, in which the Smokies is 1 of 59 nat'l parks). There are many people who use the BRP while commuting to work, or to simply go from point A to B. All those people get counted as visits - thus inflating the BRP statistics. Same with the people in TN who drive over Newfound Gap simply to gamble in Cherokee. Their out and back trips get counted as two visits... The Smoky Mountain Hikerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05019731497259511008noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6651656564842797172.post-41654996288330939482015-01-12T08:36:26.132-05:002015-01-12T08:36:26.132-05:00Jeff - do you know HOW the Park Service estimates ...Jeff - do you know HOW the Park Service estimates the number of visitors? Since there are no entrance fees, there's no way to directly count. And do they estimate the number of visitors or the number of visits? In other words, if I personally visit the park 20 times during the year, do I count as 20 visitors?Randy Smallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08316951445006694931noreply@blogger.com