New recreational visitation data from the National Park Service shows that the National Park of American Samoa was by far the least-visited site in 2022.
Only 1,887 recreational visitors graced the park, the only American national park south of the equator, last year. The second-least visited park, Alaska’s Gates of the Arctic National Park located above the Arctic Circle, had more than five times as many visitors in 2022 with 9,547.
Attendance in 2022 at the Samoan site saw a steep drop from 2021, when 8,495 visitors arrived, a decline of 77.7%. In 2020, 4,819 people went to the National Park of American Samoa, with more than 60,000 tourists in 2019.
Part of the sharp decline in visitors to the park was a result of COVID-19 closures. The COVID-19 state of emergency in the territory was lifted last Dec. 1.
The most visited national park in 2022 was also an outlier. Great Smoky Mountains National Park saw over 12 million people visit in 2022, with the second-most visited park netting fewer than 5 million visitors.
The Tennessee and North Carolina-based national park accounted for 14.59% of all American recreational visits to national parks in 2022.
Since Great Smoky Mountains National Park does not charge an entrance fee, a parking fee was recently introduced in the hopes that the revenue can help maintain and upgrade operations at the park.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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