Nationals Parks in America are each year visited by thousands of tourists. To best use their holiday time, travelers are always on the lookout for reliable information regarding the quality and popularity of national parks in the USA. Which national parks are the most visit-worthy and which are holding the top positions when it comes to popularity? Today, we’ve directed these questions at a representative from lastminutes.deals.
The past couple of years brought – starting with the pandemic – brought an interesting trend to the tourism industry. Travelers are increasingly more interested in natural wonders and entertaining things to do in nature and tend to avoid big cities and indoor gatherings. We thought that this trend will decline with the fading pandemic, but judging from the statistics, that’s not the case. Tourists made a habit of choosing open-air activities, and visiting national parks in USA certainly is an activity which meets these needs.
As it turns out from the NPS statistics:
- 92,251,867 –total number of visits spread across the 63 national parks
- 297,115,406 –total number of visits to all park sites
- 12,745,455 – overnight stays in parks
- 1,356,657,749 – total recreation visitor hours
These numbers are certainly impressive, so if you’re looking to join the tourists from all over the US and also visit a national park, these are the most popular ones:
1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park – in 2021 alone, this national park received 14.1 visitations. That’s an increase of 2 million compared to the year 2020. This puts it in the 1st spot of the most frequented park in America.
2. Zion National Park – with 5 million visits in 2021, this park holds the second spot on the list of the most popular national parks.
3. Yellowstone National Park – the most popular park in terms of publicity, is 3rd most popular national park in terms of actual visitation, with 4.9 million visitations in 2021.
4. Grand Canyon National Park – 4.5 million visits in 2021 alone make it a great choice for this year’s tourism and hiking.
5. Rocky Mountain National park – 4.4 million visits in 2021 place this national park as number 5 on our list. It’s most known for breathtaking mountain scenery.
The above numbers of visits are from 2021, and we will learn next year if anything changes on that list in terms of popularity. When all the data comes in, we will surely let our readers know. Meanwhile, the above are 5 most popular national parks in America and are certainly worth a visit if you’re interested in open-air, outdoor tourism.
