GLEN JEAN, W.Va. — Last week, the National Park Service announced that the three NPS units in southern West Virginia saw a large increase in visitors and spending.
In 2024, the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, Bluestone National Scenic River, and Gauley River National Recreation Area saw a total of 2,080,330 visitors.
The over two million visitors spent $108.3 million in the surrounding counties, which is a 12 percent increase from 2023.
Eve West, chief of interpretation and education at the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, seems to think a recent natural disaster limited visitors going to some other nice outdoor spaces in the eastern United States.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Hurricane Helene last year drove a lot of visitors up here that were planning on going to the Smokies or the Blue Ridge (Mountains),” West told MetroNews. “We got a huge surge of visitation in the fall, about this time.”
According to West, the total economic output from people coming into the area of the national parks in 2024 was $119 million. She says the nation now knows of the beauty of Southern West Virginia.
“Word is spreading and Southern West Virginia was a well-kept secret for many years,” she said.
New River Gorge was re-designated as a national park back in 2020 and has seen increases in attendance and visitor spending on a consistent basis.
“We had a lot of interest in the park initially, but like most things, it kind of dies down, but there has just been an increasing swell each year it seems like,” West said. “Most national parks over a five-year period get re-designated and things level out at about a 20 percent increase, but ours have continued to rise every year.”
“That’s not unheard of, but it’s unusual,” she continued.
West says visitors began flocking to New River Gorge after the redesignation in 2020 when folks had more time to get outside.
“Part of it was COVID. It happened right when COVID hit, but it has not stopped,” Eve said.