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National
Parks Draw Record-Breaking Crowds in 2014
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Washington,
DC – February 2015 / Newsmaker Alert / Visitation
at America’s national parks broke all-time records in 2014, as the National
Park Service prepares to celebrate its centennial in 2016 with a major
push to encourage more visitors to experience their national parks in 2016.
In 2014, there were 292.8 million visits to national parks, breaking the
previous record set in 1987 when parks saw just over 287.2 million visits.
“As
the National Park Service strives to share a more inclusive and well-rounded
version of the American story through the places we care for, it is gratifying
to see more people than ever coming to their national parks to enjoy nature,
learn about history, and spend time with their families,” said National
Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “As we look ahead to our centennial
in 2016, I am looking forward to announcing a new record-breaking number
of visitors coming to experience national parks next year and beyond.”
The
official number of recreational visits
to national parks in 2014 was 292,800,082 – an increase of 19 million,
or seven percent, from 2013 visitation of 273,630,895. Visitation in 2014
rebounded from a 2013 decline that included a 16-day government shutdown
and many park closures for repairs after Superstorm Sandy hit the northeast
in late 2012.
“Visitor
spending in the communities near national parks supports hundreds of thousands
of mostly local jobs in America year after year,” Jarvis said. “With this
record visitation we should see something on the order of $15 billion in
visitor spending, 250,000 or more jobs and a $28 billion effect on the
U.S. economy when our annual economics of national parks report comes out
in April.”
Several
national parks saw record-breaking visitation in 2014, including Joshua
Tree, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton and Glacier national parks. The re-opening
of the Washington Monument, some 21 months after it was rocked by an earthquake
and repaired, also added to 2014 visitation numbers.
Of
the 405 parks in the national park system, 369 of them track visitors,
and the top 28 most visited parks accounted for half of 2014 visitation
and half of the increase in visits between 2013 and 2014.
Grand
Canyon National Park bumped Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area
out of the top 10 most visited areas in the national park system. The list
of top ten national parks remains unchanged, although Rocky Mountain and
Olympic National Parks switched places.
Here
are the top 10 most visited places in the National Park System:
-
Golden
Gate National Recreation Area – 15,004,420
-
Blue Ridge
Parkway – 13,941,749
-
Great
Smoky Mountains National Park – 10,099,276
-
George
Washington Memorial Parkway – 7,472,150
-
Lincoln
Memorial – 7,139,072
-
Lake Mead
National Recreation Area – 6,942,873
-
Gateway
National Recreation Area – 6,021,713
-
Natchez
Trace Parkway – 5,846,474
-
Chesapeake
& Ohio Canal National Historical Park – 5,066,219
-
Grand
Canyon National Park – 4,756,771
The
top 10 most visited national parks:
-
Great
Smoky Mountains National Park – 10,099,276
-
Grand
Canyon National Park – 4,756,771
-
Yosemite
National Park – 3,882,642
-
Yellowstone
National Park – 3,513,484
-
Rocky
Mountain National Park – 3,434,751
-
Olympic
National Park – 3,243,872
-
Zion National
Park – 3,189,696
-
Grand
Teton National Park – 2,791,392
-
Acadia
National Park – 2,563,129
-
Glacier
National Park – 2,338,528
For
people who want to share their park experience with fewer fellow visitors,
the 10 parks with the lowest number of visitors last year are:
-
Salt River
Bay National Historical Park & Ecological Preserve, Virgin Islands
-
Alibates
Flint Quarries National Monument, Texas
-
Nicodemus
National Historic Site, Kansas
-
Eugene
O’Neill National Historic Site, California
-
Bering
Land Bridge National Preserve, Alaska
-
Yukon-Charley
Rivers National Preserve, Alaska
-
Thaddeus
Kosciuszko National Memorial, Pennsylvania
-
Port Chicago
Naval Magazine National Monument, California
-
Rio Grande
Wild and Scenic River, Texas
-
Aniakchak
National Monument and Preserve, Alaska
The National
Park Service has been counting visitors since 1916. Including the 2014
figures, the all-time visitation at National Park Service sites exceeds
13.2 billion. The complete list of park visitation and other visitor-related
statistics are available on the National Park Service’s web site irma.nps.gov/Stats.
About
the National Park Service
More
than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 405 national
parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local
history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit us at
www.nps.gov,
on Facebook www.facebook.com/nationalparkservice,
Twitter www.twitter.com/natlparkservice,
and YouTube www.youtube.com/nationalparkservice.
Contacts:
Jeffrey
Olson (NPS)
202-208-6843
April
Slayton (NPS)
202-208-4995 |