The East Entrance finished 2012 as a solid leader among Yellowstone Park gates, increasing its visitation by nearly 10 percent from the previous year.
“We’ve spent advertising money efficiently, we’ve done research to find out specifics about who is visiting Yellowstone, and over the past few years, we’ve focused on making Cody and Park County a destination,” said Park County Travel Council marketing director Claudia Wade.
In 2012, PCTC boosted its television, print and online advertising expenditures to $810,000, up from $711,721 in 2011.
The advertising budget comes from the lodging tax fund, she said.
It’s apparently paid off; the east gate led the field nearly ever month last year, in terms of increasing visitor numbers from 2011.
The East Entrance finished 2012 with a tally of 439,174 recreational visitors, up from 401,997 in 2011.
For December, the 108 visitors coming through the east gate nearly doubled the December 2011 tally of 62.
Though the northeast gate near Cooke City isn’t open for winter traffic, it still had a good year.
A yearly total of 229,702 visitors though the Northeast Entrance represented about a 5 percent increase from 217,632 in 2011.
The next biggest increase, about 3 percent, was at the South Entrance near Jackson – with 722,159, compared to 699,114 in 2011.
The west gate at West Yellowstone had the most visitors, 1,407,762, but increased about only 1 percent from 1,394,106 in 2011.
The North Entrance at Gardiner, with 648,931, saw about a 5 percent loss, down from 682,280 in 2011.
Overall, Yellowstone’s recreational visitation increased by about 2 percent, or 3,447,727, compared to 3,394,326 in 2011.
“Our overall visitation was enough to push us up over our previous second-best ever year, 2011, Park Service spokesman Al Nash said.
The park’s busiest year was 2010, with 3,640,185 recreational visitors.
“The East Entrance during 2012 had a greater increase in visitation than any other gate, but we can’t say exactly why,” Nash said. “It’s impossible for us to parse out that information.”
Still, some credit is due to the collective effort of the PCTC, local businesses and others, he said.
“It’s Wyoming, the Big Horn Basin, Park County, Cody and individual businesses working together, to market the East Entrance,” Nash said.
Xanterra Parks & Resorts, Yellowstone’s main concessionaire, also deserves credit, Wade said.
The east gate opened Dec. 22, right on schedule for the winter season, Nash said.
So far, the season is going well, with snowpack slightly above average in much of Yellowstone, he said.
PCTC awards $375K in grants
The Park County Travel Council awarded $375,325 in marketing grants for 2013.
Some grants include:
•Cody chamber: $96,500 for visitor center staff, $28,150 for event promotion.
•Buffalo Bill Historical Center and other attractions: $30,500.
•Yellowstone Regional Airport: $12,500.
•Cody Stampede: $15,000.
•Museum of the Old West (Old Trail Town), Cody: $4,200.
•Yellowstone Quake: $3,000.
•Cody River Days: $10,000.
•Sleeping Giant: $5,000.
•Buffalo Bill Dam Visitor Center: $3,550.
•Heart Mountain Interpretive Center: $16,675.
•Park County Arts Council: $5,000.
•Meeteetse Visitor Center: $23,250.
•Central Wyoming Council of Boy Scouts: $12,000 for Camp Buffalo Bill.
•East Yellowstone Chamber: $52,500.
•Powell chamber: $40,00 for staff, $17,500 for event promotion.
(Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@codyenterprise.com.)
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