Four percent fewer visitors traveled to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Calendar Year 2008 when compared to the same period in 2007.  

During a year of soaring automotive fuel prices and a highly-publicized faltering economy, the Park received 9,044,010 visitors through its three main entrances and outlying areas throughout Tennessee and North Carolina in 2008.  

Even with the drop in 2008 visitation, the Park remained the most visited national park in the National Park System, helping to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic benefit to local communities from visitor spending.

In December 2008, the latest economic impact analysis of visitor spending habits was issued by the National Park Service.

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