GLEN JEAN, W.Va. — The New River Gorge National Park and Preserve is bringing in the numbers– with nearly two million visitors, more than $96 million in tourism dollars and the support of over a thousand different local jobs.
A recent National Park Service report shows that approximately 1.9 million visitors made their way into the New River Gorge National Park and the two parks within it– the Gauley River National Recreation Area and the Bluestone National Scenic River– over the course of last year, and spent a total of $96.5 million in the communities near the three parks.
In addition, that spending went into supporting approximately 1,268 local jobs and allowed for a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $116.5 million.
National Park leaders had much praise to give the 2023 milestone.
“I’m so proud that our parks and the stories we tell make a lasting impact on more than 300 million visitors a year,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. “And I’m just as proud to see those visitors making positive impacts of their own, by supporting local economies and jobs in every state in the country.”
“Tourism spending has increased throughout West Virginia,” said Park Superintendent Charles Sellars. “We are pleased and proud that our three national park sites have been a part of what is a larger trend by supporting additional revenue into our local counties and, since we are now a national destination, most likely West Virginia counties and other states that are enroute to us.”
New River Gorge National Park and Preserve Chief of Interpretation Eve West said the increased visitation and tourism spending is only a byproduct of the ultimate purpose the national park serves.
“It’s nice to see, you know, it’s not why national parks were created and it’s not part of our mission, but it has been a good thing to see that we do benefit the local communities as well,” West said.
The report says that visitor spending increased 9% over 2022.
It said that the NRG National Park saw the most visitors of all three park sites and saw the highest number of visitor spending at $86.1 million.
West said over 2019, prior to the re-designation of the national park in 2020, visitation increased by over 30%.
While it’s now starting to level off some, she said visitation still continues to go up in the NRG National Park, even a little more so than others.
“Traditionally, what we have seen, when parks have gone through re-designation over about a five year period, visitation increases roughly 20-percent, but ours has well exceeded that, which has been kind of interesting to see and I think it’s just, because, you know, so many people didn’t know what West Virginia had to offer and once they discovered it, they were like ‘wow,” she said.
West said it’s no longer a place people are traveling through to get to other places, but it has become a destination point in and of itself.
She said the more visitors coming into NRG National Park is also leaving an impact across the state.
“Having the national park, people are spending money coming through these other counties as well, I mean the counties coming from the north, the counties coming from the east and west, so it’s not just our surrounding counties that are feeling the effects or getting some of the benefits of this, it’s the other counties as well,” said West.
In fact, the National Park Service report shows that over 427,000 people visited Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in the eastern panhandle in 2023 alone, and spent $23.8 million in the communities near that park.
West said one aspect of the increased visitation they haven’t seen yet but something they anticipate on seeing within the next coming years is a surge in international visitation.
However, with all the visitors comes some challenges.
West said despite all of the positives that have come with the increased visitation, it has also created a challenge with managing them all with limited staffing and keeping the parks clean.
She said their goal continues to be the push of the Leave No Trace initiative and educating visitors on the environmental footprint they leave behind.
“Hopefully our education program is making a difference and making people realize that each and every person that comes in makes their own difference as well, so we really push the whole Leave No Trace initiative and hope that anybody that comes in can consider the person that’s coming in after them,” she said.
On that note, West leaves visitors coming in with one major piece of advice:
“If you can leave the place just a little bit better than it was when you got here then I think that you’ve been successful in your visit,”