Glacier’s August tourism numbers up, park could see record visitation

Glacier’s August tourism numbers up

KALISPELL, Mont. — Glacier National Park is seeing a near record number of visitors during its centennial year.

The Daily Inter Lake reports nearly 633,000 people visited Glacier in August, up 16.8 percent over August 2009.

A total of 1.68 million people visited in June, July and August, up from 1.64 million during the same period last year.

And through the first eight months of 2010, 1.8 million people visited Glacier National Park. The busiest year on record was in 1983, when Glacier attracted a total of 2.2 million visitors.

Superintendent Chas Cartwright says he believes the park’s centennial events played a part in attracting tourists despite major construction work being done on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

Information from: Daily Inter Lake, www.dailyinterlake.com