| 115th Year, 29th Issue | Thursday, February 26, 2004 | Sparta, North Carolina |
Reversing the usual trend toward greater visitation, travel to the Blue Ridge Parkway fell in 2003.
Parkway officials said that total visits to the nation's most visited national park area declined by nearly 14 percent. The Virginia section of the scenic road saw a 19 percent decline, as compared to 11 percent in North Carolina.
Superintendent Dan Brown said that one of the rainiest years on record "no doubt played a large part in the reduced visitation."
The 469-mile Parkway, which connects the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina, recorded nearly 20,300,000 visits for the year. While data has not been collected for all 388 areas administered by the National Park Service, Parkway officials said it was almost certain that the Parkway would remain the most visited.
Brown said that the Parkway has experienced visitation drops in some
previous years, but the long-range trend is clearly toward greater
visitation. "There are always unknowns that make it impossible to
predict future travel patterns, but our visitors tend to be very loyal.
I am confident that the historical patterns will reassert themselves
and visitation will rebound."
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