National parks '09 visitation up but misses record

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ten million more people visited national parks last year than in 2008, but the numbers fell short of the all-time record for park visitation from 1987.

More than 285 million people visited national parks and other units of the National Park Service during 2009, up from nearly 275 million in 2008, according to statistics the agency released Tuesday.

The record for visitation to national parks was set in 1987 at 287.2 million.

Still, the 3.9 percent increase in 2009 visitation compared to 2008 was a triumph for the park system in a year when many sectors of the travel industry suffered a downturn due to the weak economy.

"People both here and abroad know that our national parks are America's best idea, even during an economic downturn," U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a statement. "Our national parks are treasures that tell the story of our country and celebrate its beauty and culture, and they provide vacation bargains for families living on a tight budget."

Factors that may have contributed to the increase in numbers in 2009, according to the park service, include three weekends last summer when park entrance fees were waived; visits by President Obama and his family to Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon; publicity from Ken Burns' televised series about the national parks; lower gas prices; and the strong value of the euro against the dollar, which encourages European tourism to the U.S.

Although the system overall did not set an attendance record, some individual parks had their best years ever in 2009, including Yellowstone, which saw 3.3 million people.

Overall, Yellowstone was fourth on the list of most-visited national parks in 2009. The National Park Service said Great Smoky Mountains National Park "continued its reign" as the most popular park, with 9.5 million visitors last year. Grand Canyon was No. 2 on the list, followed by Yosemite, Yellowstone, Olympic, Rocky Mountain, Zion, Cuyahoga Valley, Grand Teton and Acadia.

The Blue Ridge Parkway was the most-visited unit of the park system with nearly 16 million visitors.