This week, the National Park Service announced that 400 national parks reported a total of 325.5 million visits in 2023, an increase of 13 million or 4% over 2022.
Alaska’s NPS park visitation numbers topped its record pre-pandemic levels. Glacier Bay and Klondike Gold Rush national parks were two of 20 National Park Service units to break annual visitation in 2023. Glacier Bay welcomed 703,659 visitors, a 5% increase over its previous record in 2019. Klondike Gold Rush saw visitation climb to 1,284,320 which crushed its previous record of 1.1 million visitors in 2019. Most of the rise in visitation can be accounted for in the continued growth of cruise ship traffic to Alaska, but three other park areas in the Northwest Arctic Borough also saw record visitation.
Visits to Alaska’s parklands collectively topped 3.25 million visitors which beat 2019 numbers by 37,155. “We are pleased that so many people are finding their way back to Alaska’s national parks,” said Sarah Creachbaum, NPS Alaska Regional Director. “Visitation to our parks not only creates jobs for Alaskans and their communities, but our spectacular natural and cultural landscapes introduce a whole new generation to the value that national parks bring to America and the world,” Creachbaum said.
Visitation figures and trends guide how the National Park Service manages parks to ensure the best experience possible for park visitors. The Visitation Statistics Dashboard provides recreational visit statistics for every park in the US for 2023 and also for previous years, dating back to 1979 for some parks. There are 429 parks in the National Park System, and 400 parks counted visitors in 2023. For the first time, there are now parks reporting their visitation numbers from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and four US territories. Five national parks began reporting in 2023, and this is the first year a park from Delaware is included.