Average of 2.66 million visitors to park who come through year-round gate every year in every one since 2014
Yellowstone’s National Park gate reports that some 9.5 million people visited the park last year, setting attendance records each September and year-to-date.
That figure, however, is 3.7% off the number who came to the National Park service park in 2017. Most of the decrease can be attributed to a total 1.7 million fewer visitors to Yellowstone – the largest national park in the US – this year, the National Park Service said.
That means Yellowstone has hosted some 2.66 million people over the last five years, and nearly 5.6 million in the last year alone.
That’s about 450,000 more visitors in 2018 than 2017, according to data from the National Park Service.
2015 Park service manager on why Trump issues prompt ‘no further debate’ in national parks Read more
More than 6.2 million people visited the park in October 2017. The number of people visited the park during a single month also dipped in September of this year, down 5.8% for the year, after hitting an all-time high last year.
The numbers mark a strong start to 2019 for the National Park Service. Four parks, national monuments and national marine parks had visited more than 4 million visitors this year through 30 January, with Grand Canyon setting a new record of 5.9 million people last year.
Yellowstone is the second most visited national park behind the Grand Canyon.
The National Park Service had some 20 million visitors visit national parks across the country last year. This year, national park visits were impacted by government shutdowns, which lasted almost three weeks in January and another for 21 days in February.
In September, President Donald Trump signed a spending bill that included a $1.375bn increase for the National Park Service over the next five years.
