Yellowstone visits drop; summer bookings down
By Cory Hatch and The Associated Press, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
April 3, 2009
Yellowstone National Park visitation declined more than 13 percent this winter, thanks in part to the poor economy, uncertainty over snowmobile regulations and poor snowfall early in the season, officials said.
Visitation dropped from 99,975 last winter to 86,793 this year. Snowmobile traffic at the South Entrance declined 32 percent, from an average of 112 snowmobiles a day last winter to 76 snowmobiles a day this season.
Parkwide, average daily snowmobile visits dropped about 30 percent, from 294 a day to 205 a day. Snow coach trips dropped from a daily average of 35 a day to 29 a day.
Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said the drop looks significant compared with last year but is on par with winter visitation numbers in the past five years. Further, he said the winter visitation, while important, is a small fraction compared with summer numbers.
“On an average busy summer day, we’ll have 24,000 people in the park,” he said. “Add four summer days together and we’ll have more visitors than we have all winter long.”
Nash said park officials remain optimistic about this summer.
“Over the recessions we’ve had since World War II, Yellowstone visitation has dipped as we go into a recession,” he said. “But as we come out of those recessions, those numbers not only pick back up they [often exceed pre-recession levels].”
Further, Nash said gas prices remain low, making a trip to Yellowstone an affordable option for some families.
“We may see a different mix of visitors, and they may adjust how they spend their money, but Yellowstone and Grand Teton remain very attractive to visitors regardless of current economic circumstances,” he said.
Officials say fewer tourists have booked advance reservations to visit the Greater Yellowstone Area this summer, but industry leaders hope low gas prices will lure people to drive to national parks and other attractions in Montana and Wyoming.
Lee Haines, a spokesman for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, said museum planners are expecting flat visitor numbers this year with a slight rise possible in recreational vehicle traffic compared with last year. He said because many RV owners are retired, they have more flexible travel schedules that allow them to drive when gas prices are lower.
Rick Hoeninghausen, director of sales and marketing for Xanterra Parks and Resorts, the main lodging company in Yellowstone, said advance reservations so far this year are down 13 percent from last year. He noted that bookings are good for July and August but group tours and early season stays are down.
“I can’t say it was totally unexpected,” Hoeninghausen said, adding that “this is a new economic situation that is not like anything most of us here now can remember.”
Meanwhile, some who attended Montana’s annual travel conference in Helena earlier this week also were uncertain about the season and reported weak spring bookings.
Sarah Lawlor, a spokeswoman for the state’s tourism office, said July and August look strong but reservations for earlier months are down. And the state’s travel research office is for the first time predicting a 2 percent drop from the year before.
Lawlor said her office is focusing its marketing on places like Minneapolis and Seattle, from which many visitors travel by car.
