With the busy summer months still ahead, visitation to Yellowstone National Park for the first five months of 2016 is up 14.65 percent compared to the previous year. Visitation for May alone is up 15 percent.
All of the park’s five entrances showed an increase in vehicles for the month of May compared to May 2015. The West Entrance recorded the largest increase in May, with 9,175 more vehicles than May 2015. The most striking increase in vehicle traffic this month was with buses. There were 48 percent more buses (594 vehicles) this May compared with May 2015.
While many factors could be at play, park managers point to the National Park Service’s Centennial year, marketing and tourism promotions by the states of Montana and Wyoming, and lower gas prices as influences in the record number of visits to Yellowstone so far this year.
Recreational Visits 2016 Recreational Visits 2015 Change
January
30,621
28,091
9%
February
36,327
34,343
5.7%
March
22,924
22,989
(1%)
April
59,253
46,600
27%
May
444,817
386,064
15.2%
Total Year-To-Date
593,942
518,087
14.64%
Detailed park visitation information and additional information on how these statistics are calculated is available online at https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/Reports/Park.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
