Visits to Smokies up 37.7% in December

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
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Record-Level Attendance Continues at NC State Parks in 2011

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
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Smokies Visits Down, But BRP Up

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
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Visitation up 4.4% in September in Smokies

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
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Why is visitation in the Smokies down significantly?

"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
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