Despite recession, Yellowstone National Park has record year for tourism in 2009

Yellowstone Nat’l Park has record tourism in 2009

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — A miserable year for the economy didn’t prevent a record number of people from visiting Yellowstone National Park in 2009.

The National Park Service announced Tuesday that 3.3 million people visited the world’s first national park last year, up 7.5 percent from 2008 and almost 5 percent more than the previous record set in 2007.

Four of Yellowstone’s top 10 years for tourism were in the past decade. The other six were in the 1990s.

Park officials say Yellowstone’s West Entrance is the busiest. More than 1.3 million tourists passed through the West Entrance in 2009.