news-record.com

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park remains the busiest of the nation's parks by far, despite a drop in attendance last year.

 Smokies Superintendent Dale Ditmanson said park officials are looking at new ways to draw visitors. The 500,000-acre forested park on the Tennessee-North Carolina state line drew 9,008,831 visitors last year, down a half-million from 2010.

The park topped 10 million visitors in 1999 and 2000, and it averaged about 9.3 million visits a year from 2006-2010. Park officials believe 2010 got a bump because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, with about 9.5 million visitors.

A massive advertising campaign on behalf of the Gulf coast beaches likely dragged down the 2011 numbers.

A spokesman for several commercial attractions in the Smokies foothills agreed.

"All national parks are down, so the Smokies are no exception. I think this year, people just decided to stay closer to home," said Rick Laney.

Laney said the massive advertising campaign designed to lure travelers back to the Gulf coast had an effect.

Inside the park, any decline is imperceptible, said Ditmanson.

"We're a busy place and our facilities and our resources are impacted by a lot of use," he said, then added "That's OK. We like people"

- The Associated Press