Great Smoky Mountains National Park recorded 963,317 visitors during September which is a 9.2 percent increase in visitation as compared with September 2011.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park recorded a 9.2 percent increase in visitation in the month of September over a year ago. (SCOTT MCKIE B.P./One Feather)
Visitation numbers during September 2012 at all the Park’s three major entrances showed increased over September 2011 as follows:
Gatlinburg: up 7.8 percent
Townsend: up 4.5 percent
Cherokee: up 5.3 percent
The total entrances at the 14 outlying areas were also up 17.4 percent difference over September 2011
Year-to-date visitation for 2012 is up by 8.9 percent, which works out to 602,299 more people than during the same time last year.
“September is a transition month where Labor Day marks the end of the summer season and the start of the school year,” Park officials related in a statement. “The Park generally sees a very slight lull in visitors before the popular autumn leaf peepers begin to flock to the Great Smoky Mountains towards the end of the month.”
Details by entrance can be found by searching for Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the following NPS Stats website:
https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/Reports/ReportList
– NPS
