Decline in Tourism Numbers in Park County

It’s been a lighter season for tourism in Park County than what we’ve seen in the past few years.

The Park County Travel Council last week released their most recent report on visitor activity. According to the statistics, Visitor Center walk-ins in Cody last month were three and a half percent lower than July of last year, and Park County Travel Council website visits are down 25%. The Buffalo Bill Center of the West did see a 4.3% increase in July visits, but the year to date numbers are down 4.6%.

Yellowstone Park has also seen a slight decrease in visitors, just a half a percent under July of last year, and 2.8 percent lower at the East Entrance, although the Northeast Entrance, also considered a Cody gateway, is up twelve and a half percent over last July’s numbers.

The Cody Enterprise reports that Park County lodging taxes continue to run lower than last year during the same time periods, although July was a busier month locally than June. Collection of the hotel taxes ran 8 percent, or over $45,000 dollars lower this year than in July of 2018. Year to date totals are twelve percent lower than they were at this time last year.

There were some positive notes in the report, however. The July numbers for the Cody Stampede and Nite Rodeo were up over 53% from last year, with almost 46,000 people attending the rodeo during its Centennial celebration and the rest of the month of July. That’s the highest monthly attendance ever recorded for both the month of July, as well as the year-to-date numbers.

Additionally, the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center saw a 16 percent increase over last July’s visitor numbers, and enplanements at Yellowstone Regional Airport last month were up twelve and a half percent over July of last year, although year to date numbers are down four percent.