Pandemic boom in outdoor tourism still echoes in national parks | Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

At the end of 2019 , visits to NPS parks featuring outdoor recreation were close to the highest they’ve been for four decades .

Visits plunged in 2020 when many parks closed partially or entirely to limit the spread of COVID-19 , then rebounded sharply in 2021 .

While some parks gained so much traffic that overcrowding was a concern, others grew quieter.

The number of visits at NPS parks featuring outdoor recreation from January to September 2024 was down 4 percent compared with the same period in 2019 .

In the Ninth District , visitors outnumbered losers by about 2-to-1 .

Among the top 10 national parks, two increased by double digit percentages and two decreased by that much.

The number of Americans participating in hiking and camping is on the rise.

Survey: Number of hikers grew 23 percent and the number of campers, 30 percent .

Camping has especially accelerated since the pandemic, the Outdoor Foundation found.

The economic impact of these activities has also grown significantly.