Record-level visits to North Carolina State Parks continued in 2012

Record-level visits to North Carolina State Parks continued in 2012

Saturday, February 16, 2013

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Earlier in the week the N.C Division of Parks and Recreation announced that visitation at North Carolina’s state parks and state recreation areas continued at a record level in 2012, with 14.2 million visits, matching attendance levels set in 2009 and 2011.

Among 41 state parks and state recreation areas, 18 reported increases in attendance in 2012. Fort Macon State Park in Carteret County reported the highest attendance at 1.24 million visits, down slightly from 1.29 million last year.

“Continued record attendance demonstrates that our state parks and state recreation areas fulfill a desire of North Carolinians and their visitors for affordable family recreation and a meaningful outdoor experience,” said Lewis Ledford, state parks director. “A direct result of this high visitation is the strong contributions that state parks make to North Carolina’s tourism economy as well as the economies of local communities.”

A 2008 economic study revealed that travelers spend an average $23.56 a day to enjoy the state parks. The analysis by North Carolina State University’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management estimated the state parks system’s total annual economic impact at more than $400 million. The complete study can be found here.

During the past 25 years, the state parks system has seen a dramatic 87 percent increase in visitation. In 1987, 7.6 million people visited state parks and state recreation areas.

Several state parks that reported higher attendance in 2012 were able to offer improvements and new amenities to visitors. A new 7,100-square-foot visitor center and related facilities were dedicated at Gorges State Park, and the park experienced a 22 percent increase in visitation. Improvements in access facilities at Chimney Rock State Park contributed to a 36 percent jump in attendance, while William B. Umstead State Park in Wake County, which improved parking and a popular trailhead area, recorded visitation up 33 percent.

Other parks with significant increases in visitation include Hammocks Beach State Park in Onslow County (57 percent), Haw River State Park in Guilford and Rockingham counties (31 percent), Jordan Lake State Recreation Area in Chatham County (35 percent) and Lake Waccamaw State Park in Columbus County (53 percent).

The state parks system manages more than 217,000 acres within state parks, state recreation areas and a system of state natural areas dedicated to conservation of rare resources. Through its New Parks for a New Century initiative, six new state parks have been added to the system since 2003.


Jeff
Hiking in the Smokies

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Visits to Smokies up 37.7% in December

Visits to Smokies up 37.7% in December

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

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The latest park visitation statistics show that the number of visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park jumped 37.7% in December versus the same month in 2010. A total of 471,603 visitors entered the park last month, compared to just 342,512 last December.

The Cherokee entrance saw the largest improvement: reporting a whopping increase of 75.1% for the month. Gatlinburg saw a 46.1% increase, while Townsend came in at 24.1% above the prior year.

For the entire year, however, total visits were down 4.8%. The park reported a total of 9,008,831 visitors to the park in 2011, versus 9,463,538 in 2010. Although that decrease may have hurt some businesses that depend on tourist dollars, the annual visitor count was still within the normal statistical range going back to the mid-1970s. Here's a look at visitor counts since the park's inception:

For the year, total overnight stays in the park declined 3.8%. This was the result of a 6.1% decrease in tent campers, and a 15.7% decline in RV campers. Bucking the trend were backcountry campers, which saw an increase of 13.8% in 2011 versus the prior year.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com

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Record-Level Attendance Continues at NC State Parks in 2011

Record-Level Attendance Continues at NC State Parks in 2011

Saturday, January 14, 2012

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Visitation at North Carolina’s state parks and state recreation areas continued at a record level in 2011, with 14.25 million visits, matching the all-time record set in 2009 and posting a slight increase from 14.19 visits in 2010, according to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation.

Among 39 state parks and state recreation areas, 15 reported increases in attendance in 2011. Jockey’s Ridge State Park in Dare County reported the highest attendance at 1.32 million visits, down slightly from 1.47 million last year.

A 2008 economic study revealed that travelers spend an average of $23.56 a day to enjoy the state parks. The analysis by North Carolina State University’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management estimated the state parks system’s total annual economic impact at more than $400 million. The complete study can be found here.

During the past 25 years, the state parks system has seen a dramatic 102 percent increase in visitation. In 1986, 7 million people visited state parks and state recreation areas.

Several state parks that reported higher attendance in 2011 were able to offer new amenities to visitors. A new 700-foot swim beach and picnic area at Lake James State Park opened for its first full season, and the park experienced a 70 percent jump in visitation. Improvements at other state parks contributed to increased visitation, including a renovated marina at Carolina Beach State Park, a new equestrian trail network at Medoc Mountain State Park and a number of hiking trail projects, including a volunteer-built summit trail at Elk Knob State Park.

The state parks system manages more than 215,000 acres within state parks, state recreation areas and a system of state natural areas dedicated to conservation of rare resources. Through its New Parks for a New Century initiative, six new state parks have been added to the system since 2003.

Parks with significant increases in visitation include Dismal Swamp State Park in Camden County (34 percent), Elk Knob State Park in Watauga County (50 percent), Jones Lake State Park in Bladen County (26 percent), Kerr Lake State Recreation Area in Vance County (24 percent) and Medoc Mountain State Park in Halifax County (31 percent). State park visitation is often affected by weather events. For instance, Hurricane Irene in August closed Goose Creek State Park for several weeks and other eastern and Piedmont parks briefly.

You can view visitation figures for each state park by clicking here.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com

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Smokies Visits Down, But BRP Up

Smokies Visits Down, But BRP Up

Monday, November 21, 2011

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The Great Smoky Mountains recorded another significant decline in visitors last month. Compared to the same month last year, visitation to the park in October declined a whopping 9.5%. Strangely, October is one of the busiest months of the year because of the fall foliage, and this year ranked as a very good year for fall colors.

For the year-to-date, park visitation is down 6.7% when compared to the first 10 months of 2010. This is worse than the overall National Park System, which is down 2.4% for the year. Moreover, parks in the southeast region saw an increase of 3.8%, making the numbers in the Smokies look even worse. Regional increases were driven by three parks in particular:

* Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Georgia has recorded 2.3 million visitors for the YTD, a jump of 56%!

* Gulf Islands National Seashore in Florida, with 5.1 million visitors so far this year, has seen an increase of 25.5%!

* Blue Ridge Parkway also recorded an increase of 5.2% versus the first 10 months of 2010.

However, parks nearby the Smokies have fared just as badly, or worse. Shenandoah National Park has seen a decline in visitation of 4.6% for the year, while the Big South Fork is down 10.8%.

So what to make of all these numbers? I don't know what the exact numbers are, but I would say that a large percentage of Smokies visitors come from the area directly surrounding the park. In particular, from the Knoxville area. With the bad economy that we've had to endure over the last three years, my guess is that many people in the surrounding area have spent their vacation/recreation time nearby in order to stretch their dollars as far as possible. Many of those people in 2011, I'm guessing, decided it's time to do and see something else, with the beach sounding like a pretty good option.

Anybody have any other insights?


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com

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Visitation up 4.4% in September in Smokies

Visitation up 4.4% in September in Smokies

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

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Through the first nine months of the year, visits to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park are 6.2% below the numbers for the same time last year. Through September the park has seen 6,797,955 visits.

For the month of September, however, visitation was up by 4.4%.

Interestingly, the number of people camping in front country campsites in the park is down 6.8% for the year. However, the number of backcountry campers has increased by 16.9%! No wonder the park wants to charge fees for camping in the backcountry! Or, are people trying to get in as many "bag" nights as possible before the fees kick-in?

In other parks:

* So far this year the Blue Ridge Parkway has seen 12,938,118 visits. That represents a 7.7% increase over 2010 figures for the same time period. However, for the month of September, visitation was down 10.2%.

* Visitation to Shenandoah National Park was down a whopping 25.1% in September, while dragging it into negative territory for the year (-1.1%).

* Finally, at the Big South Fork NRA, visitation was down 3.8% for the month of September, and is down 9.2% for the YTD.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com

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Why is visitation in the Smokies down significantly?

Why is visitation in the Smokies down significantly?

Sunday, July 24, 2011

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"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

-Yogi Berra

Visitation to the Great Smoky Mountains dropped 17.6% in June, and is down 11.9% through the first six months of the year. This represent nearly a half million fewer visitors so far this year!

Park spokesman, Bob Miller, has been quoted in the press stating that managers aren't exactly sure as to the reasons for the decline, but think that high gas prices and the continuing weak economy are to blame.

It's true that a gallon of gas costs roughly $1.00 more when compared to last summer, Gross Domestic Product is down from last year, and the unemployment situation is roughly the same, but visitation across the entire National Park System is down only 1.1% for the YTD.

Incidentally, visitation to the Blue Ridge Parkway has jumped 23.5% this year. Superintendent Phil Francis, however, said the increase was due to the Parkway opening on time this year as a result of an easier winter that brought fewer trees down on the road. I'll buy that analysis when comparing the early spring numbers, but the BRP still saw an increase of 1.7% for the month of June.

So there has to be another reason(s) for the significant drop in the Smokies relative to the rest of the National Park System. Have there been significant increases in hotel and cabin rental rates? Is the park's reputation for being too crowded catching up with the general public? Did reports of the April Cades Cove tornado give the impresson that major portions of the park were damaged? Has Pigeon Forge and/or Gatlinburg lost any significant convention business?

Anybody have any insight?


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com

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Great Smoky Mountains historical visitation trends

Great Smoky Mountains historical visitation trends

Thursday, January 27, 2011

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Last week the National Park Service Public Use Statistics Office reported that the Great Smoky Mountains ended the year with a total of 9,463,538 visitors to the park in 2010.

I was curious to see what the historical trends were for this measure of the country's most visited national park. This same website also provides annual visitation count data going back to 1931. Here's a look at the total number of visitors by year:

It might be a little tough to see from this graph, but the park reached the one million visitor milestone for the first time in 1941, just as the United States was getting ready to enter into WWII. During the war years, visitation declined significantly, just as you might expect. However, in 1946, the first full year after the war, visitation jumped above one million mark again, and never looked back.

From 1946 through 1977, the park experienced almost uninterupted growth. 1977 was also the first year visitation pushed through the 9 million mark. Since that year, and up until the present, the number of visitors has basically trended within a range of 8 - 10 million visitors per year. On three occasions the park has exceeded the 10 million mark. Interestingly, since 2001, the Smokies has seen a tighter range of visitors flowing into the park, averaging just above 9 million visitors per year.

You can click here for a few more visitation stats for 2010 and the month of December.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com

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Smokies visitation slightly down in 2010

Smokies visitation slightly down in 2010

Friday, January 21, 2011

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The Great Smoky Mountains reported a total of 9,463,538 visitors to the park in 2010, a 0.3% decrease from the prior year. Although Gatlinburg (1.5%), Townsend (3.2%) and Cherokee (4.6%) each saw year over year increases, the park's 13 outlying entrances reported an overall decrease of 9.1%. Much of that decrease was driven by declines at the Foothills Pkwy East portion of the park, which has been closed for much of the year due to the reconstruction project. This section of the park saw a decline of just over a half million visitors, or 46.2% versus 2009.

The 9.46 million visitors to the park in 2010 represented the second highest total in the last decade. Only 2009, the 75th Anniversary year, was higher.

For the month of December, the entire park saw a sharp decline from the same period in 2009. Visitors arriving through the Gatlinburg entrance were down more than 40%, while Townsend dropped 20%, and Cherokee plummeted more than 56%.

Nearby Parks:

* The Blue Ridge Parkway reported a total of 14,517,119 visitors in 2010, which represented an 8.9% decrease from the previous year. This is a bit of a surprise given that the park celebrated its 75th Anniversary this past year. Road closures likely played a large part in this decline.

* Shenandoah National Park reported 1,264,347 visitors for the year, an 11.7% increase versus 2009.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com

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Top 10 most visited National Parks in 2009

Top 10 most visited National Parks in 2009

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

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Despite the recession, or perhaps because of it, more than 285 million visitors flocked to national parks last year, falling just short of the all-time visitation record of 287.2 million set in 1987.

The National Park Service reported that 2009 visitation represented an increase of 10 million people, or 3.6%, versus the prior year.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar speculated that the increases may have be a result of families on tight budgets view parks as bargains, parks offered free visitation on three weekends, and parks attracted extra attention as a result of Ken Burns's documentary on the history of parks.

As usual, the Great Smoky Mountains ranked the highest in total visitation. Here's how the top 10 parks ranked in terms of visitation for 2009:

1) Great Smoky Mountains (9.5 million visitors)
2) Grand Canyon (4.3 million visitors)
3) Yosemite (3.7 million)
4) Yellowstone (3.3 million)
5) Olympic (3.3 million)
6) Rocky Mountain (2.8 million)
7) Zion (2.7 million)
8) Cuyahoga Valley (2.6 million)
9) Grand Tetons (2.6 million)
10) Acadia (2.2 million)

Also, the Blue Ridge Parkway was the most visited unit of the system with nearly 16 million visitors in 2009.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com Detailed information on trails in the Smoky Mountains; includes trail descriptions, key features, pictures, video, maps, elevation profiles, news, and more.

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