Park visitor count at 1.78 million

Glacier National Park is on pace for one of its busiest years but is still slightly short of the record-setting visitation numbers of 2010, the park’s centennial year.

According to the National Park Service statistics office, total August visitation this year was up 3.7 percent over the same month last year.

During the first eight months of the year, 1,783,532 visitors entered the park, 3.4 percent more than the same period last year.

Release of the August numbers was delayed until mid-September because a new statistics website was being established.

During the record-setting year of 2010, the park had 1,809,340 visitors during the first eight months. By the end of the year, 2,226,757 people had entered the park, besting the previous record of 2,203,847 in 1983.

Glacier visitor numbers could be high for September and October because of favorable weather and the fact that for the first time in a few years, Logan Pass will be accessible from the west side of the park through Oct. 20 (weather permitting).

The pass had been closed from the west in mid-September for several years because of road construction.

This year, starting Sept. 22 the pass will be inaccessible from the east side of the park because of road work.

As usual, the park’s west entrance has been the busiest, and it recorded the biggest increase in visitor numbers — 7 percent — of any park entrance during the first eight months of 2013. The Two Medicine entrance recorded a 5.6 percent increase, partly because of a surprising 17 percent increase in visitors during August.

Total overnight stays in the park are up 4.5 percent for the year, with increases in concessions lodging, tent camping, backcountry camping and RV camping.

Meanwhile, a group called Voices of Montana Tourism is reporting preliminary figures that indicate overall tourism in Montana this summer may surpass the record-breaking 2012 season in terms of lodging.

Voices of Montana Tourism is a collaboration of more than 20 organizations statewide that formed in 2011 to raise awareness about tourism’s value to Montana.

The group cited Smith Travel Research Inc., which reported that hotel occupancy in Montana exceeded the national average in June and July for the second year in a row, peaking in July at 82 percent.

Occupancy of available rooms increased by more than 2 percent from 2012, and the overall revenue per available room in the state increased by about 4 percent.

“This is great news for small businesses and Montanans,” Montana Lodging and Hospitality president Sandra Johnson-Thares said. “Montana still led the nation for June and July. That means that as the U.S. economy is just beginning to improve, folks are already choosing to spend their family’s time and money in Montana.”

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by email at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.