Katmai National Park recorded 34,479 recreation visitors in 2025, according to the National Park Service (NPS), a 4.83% decrease from 2024. The park’s recent record in this supplied series was 84,167 recreation visits in 2019. These figures measure annual recreation visits; they are different from visitor days and from commercial-operator visitor-use days.
Contents
- Recent annual visitation
- Visits, visitor days, and non-recreation measures
- Pandemic disruption and recovery
- Seasonal and location-based use
- Brooks Camp activity
- Visitor-spending effects
Recent annual visitation
The NPS annual park-visitation report lists 37,818 recreation visits for each year from 2015 through 2018. That stable run was followed by a sharp increase in 2019, when Katmai recorded 84,167 recreation visits. The same annual series lists 51,511 visits in 2020, 24,764 in 2021, 33,908 in 2022, 33,763 in 2023, and 36,230 in 2024. Source: NPS Annual Visitation By Park.
| Calendar year | Recreation visits |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 37,818 |
| 2016 | 37,818 |
| 2017 | 37,818 |
| 2018 | 37,818 |
| 2019 | 84,167 |
| 2020 | 51,511 |
| 2021 | 24,764 |
| 2022 | 33,908 |
| 2023 | 33,763 |
| 2024 | 36,230 |
| 2025 | 34,479 |
The latest supplied annual count is for calendar year 2025. The NPS report gives 34,479 recreation visitors and describes that result as 4.83% below 2024. It is an observed count for 2025, not a forecast for 2026. Source: NPS Visitation By State and by Park for Calendar Year: 2025.
Visits, visitor days, and non-recreation measures
NPS reporting separates a visit from a visitor day. A recreation visit is the annual visitation measure, while a recreation visitor day is a separate measure of visitor use. Katmai’s 2016 report recorded 19,441 recreation visitor days and reported a 0.0% change from 2015. Source: 2016 Recreation Visits / Visitor Days by State and U.S. Territory.
For 2019, the NPS reported 21,395 recreation visitor days, up 10.1% from 2018. The same report recorded 84,167 recreation visits, up 122.6% from 2018. It listed 0 non-recreation visits and 0 non-recreation visitor days, each with a 0.0% change from 2018. These measures should not be substituted for one another. Source: 2019 Recreation Visits / Visitor Days and Non-Recreation Visits / Visitor Days.
The 2020 report recorded 45,292 recreation visitor days, up 111.7% from 2019. It also recorded 700 non-recreation visits and 1,107 non-recreation visitor days, each reported as up 100.0% from 2019. Source: 2020 Recreation Visits / Visitor Days and Non-Recreation Visits / Visitor Days.
In 2021, recreation visitor days totaled 34,101, down 24.7% from 2020. Non-recreation visits totaled 6,266, up 795.1%, while non-recreation visitor days totaled 5,055, up 356.8%. In 2022, recreation visitor days rose to 49,659, up 45.6% from 2021. Non-recreation visits reached 7,536, up 20.3%, and non-recreation visitor days reached 7,824, up 54.8%. Sources: 2021 NPS visitor-day report and 2022 NPS visitor-day report.
Pandemic disruption and recovery
Katmai’s annual recreation-visit series changed sharply across 2019–2022. The park recorded 84,167 recreation visits in 2019, followed by 51,511 in 2020, a reported 38.8% decline. In 2021, recreation visits fell to 24,764, down 51.9% from 2020. In 2022, they rose to 33,908, up 36.9% from 2021. Sources: 2020 NPS report, 2021 NPS report, and 2022 NPS report.
Visitor days followed a different pattern. Recreation visitor days increased from the 2019 figure of 21,395 to 45,292 in 2020, the report’s 111.7% increase. They then declined to 34,101 in 2021, down 24.7%, before rising to 49,659 in 2022, up 45.6%. Because visits and visitor days are distinct NPS measures, the two series should be read separately rather than treated as interchangeable indicators of the same activity.
The later annual counts were 33,763 recreation visits in 2023, 36,230 in 2024, and 34,479 in 2025. The 2025 figure was 4.83% below 2024. Source: NPS 2025 visitation report.
The annual series therefore contains several different reference points. The 2015–2018 counts are all 37,818, while 2019 is 84,167. The 2020 count of 51,511 remains above the 2015–2018 level, but the 2021 count of 24,764 is below it. The 2022–2025 counts—33,908, 33,763, 36,230, and 34,479—remain in a narrower band than the 2019 peak. Those comparisons describe the supplied annual counts only; they do not explain why any year’s total changed.
The visitor-day records add another perspective. In 2019, the park had 84,167 recreation visits but 21,395 recreation visitor days. In 2020, it had 51,511 recreation visits and 45,292 recreation visitor days. In 2021, the corresponding measures were 24,764 and 34,101, and in 2022 they were 33,908 and 49,659. The changing relationship between these two measures is why a visitor count alone cannot stand in for every measure of visitor use.
The NPS also records non-recreation measures separately. Katmai had no non-recreation visits or non-recreation visitor days listed for 2019. The reported totals then rose to 700 visits and 1,107 visitor days in 2020, 6,266 visits and 5,055 visitor days in 2021, and 7,536 visits and 7,824 visitor days in 2022. Those values belong to their stated calendar years and should remain separate from recreation visitation.
Seasonal and location-based use
Commercial operators reported between 25,000 and 37,000 Katmai visitor-use days per year over 2007–2020. This commercial-operator measure is separate from the NPS recreation-visit count. The reported activities were sport fishing, bear viewing, and air taxi use. Source: NPS Visitor Use.
About 70% of Katmai visitor-use days normally occurred in July and August, according to the same 2007–2020 seasonal pattern. Four locations—Hallo Bay, Geographic Harbor/Amalik Bay, Kukak Bay, and Swikshak Lagoon—together exceeded 5,000 visitor-use days in a normal year. These figures describe reported visitor use and location patterns, not a conversion into annual park recreation visits.
Brooks Camp received almost 2,000 visitor-use days in July 2020. Brooks Camp was closed for one month in June 2020, while the comparison described by the NPS covered May through October. The timing matters when interpreting the July figure and the wider seasonal pattern. Source: NPS Visitor Use.
Brooks Camp activity
The Katmai National Park and Preserve Environmental Impact Statement provides a separate snapshot of Brooks Lodge activity during the 2010 season. Brooks Lodge recorded 1,404 room nights and 3,590 bed nights. Its reported averages were 351 room nights per month and 898 bed nights per month. Source: Katmai National Park and Preserve Environmental Impact Statement.
The same 2010 source recorded more than 1,300 overnight visits at Brooks Lodge in July. Katmailand provided more than 1,000 Valley Tours, 19 guided wildlife-viewing tours, and 22 guided fishing tours during 2010. These are activity measures for the 2010 season; they are not annual NPS recreation-visit totals and should not be added to the parkwide visitation series.
Visitor-spending effects
NPS visitor-spending-effects tables connect park visitation with modeled economic measures. For 2024, the table lists 36,230 recreation visits to Katmai, $70.525 million in visitor spending, 659 supported jobs, $34.294 million in labor income, $61.978 million in value added, and $101.043 million in economic output. The dollar amounts are in 2024 dollars. Source: 2024 National Park Visitor Spending Effects.
The 2024 table notes that Katmai was closed for one or more months and that its economic estimates use the NPS modeling framework. Accordingly, the spending, jobs, labor-income, value-added, and output figures are modeled economic-effect estimates associated with the reported visitation, not direct counts of money spent at every location.
For 2022, the NPS visitor-spending-effects reporting listed 33,908 recreation visits, $55.973 million in visitor spending, 785 supported jobs, and $83.763 million in economic output, with dollar amounts in 2022 dollars. Source: National Park Visitation Sets New Record as Economic Engines.
An earlier NPS economic-effects profile lists 30,896 recreation visits for Katmai in 2014. That historical figure is a 2014 measure and is not independently reclassified here. Source: Impacts of visitor spending on the local and Alaska economies: Katmai National Park and Preserve, 2014.