It could be a lot of factors,” she said.ĭespite the decrease in attendance numbers, Barnes said that, at least on the ground, visitation in the summer of 2021 still seemed like the summer of 2020. “There’s a lot of other options of things to do. Pamela Barnes, chief information officer for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, said that the reason for this decline is unclear. This year, however, Cuyahoga Valley has seen a decrease in attendance compared to last year. The park’s attendance numbers are down about 34% from 2020 through August 2021, the most recent month for which attendance statistics have been reported. By the numbers, attendance in 2021 has been more like 2019 than 2020. In 2020, Cuyahoga Valley National Park saw a significant increase in attendance because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 2.76 million visitors compared to 2.24 million in 2019. Other parks are seeing something different. Increase or decrease? Depends on the parkįor the most part, attendance at other parks in the Great Lakes Region is on track to break records again in 2021. Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Indiana Dunes National Park have already broken their 2020 attendance records. A lot of people who have never been here before don’t realize everything that there is to do,” she said. “We had a lot of new campers last year, new people last year, and they really got excited about coming back to the park. Merrith Baughman is director of visitor services at Sleeping Bear Dunes. Baughman said that the continued strong attendance can be partially attributed to a continued desire for safe family activities like exploring a new trail. There are also returning visitors who first discovered the park during last year’s surge. In 2021, the park is on track to break that attendance record again, even though other forms of recreation and entertainment like indoor gyms and concerts are now open. Almost 1.7 million people have already visited the park with two months remaining in the year. But that hasn’t been the case with parks across the board. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was one of those parks. According to unofficial data from the National Park Service, over 1.7 million people visited in 2020, the highest attendance on record. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, many Great Lakes national parks experienced record visitation as people sought to experience the outdoors and participate in safe forms of recreation.
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