Great Smoky Mountains attracts more than 3 million visitors in 2021

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - The National Park Service announced more than three million people visited the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the first four months of 2021.

According to the National Park Service, 3,128,789 people have visited the park this year. That is a 115 percent increase to this time 2020, when only 1,452,253 individuals visited the park. Officials said the COVID-19 pandemic played a large role in the deficit.

In April alone, the Great Smoky Mountains attracted 1,169,469 visitors. In April 2020, 99,371 visitors were reported.

Gatlinburg was the most popular area of the park, with nearly 500,000 visitors so far in 2021.

The National Park Service uses multiple methods to count the number of visitors each day, including, door counters, road counters, campground reservation numbers and surveys.