(BIVN) – The number of visitors to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is on the rise.

The National Park Service reported this week that 1,620,294 people visited the park in 2023, a nearly 2.5% increase from 2022.

Officials noted that there has been a 27.5% increase from 2008, the beginning of a 10-year eruption within Halemaʻumaʻu crater at Kīlauea summit.

NPS Photo/Janice Wei

“Eruptions often influence visitation at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, and eruptions have also drastically changed the park,” said Park Superintendent Rhonda Loh. “Visitors should be aware that construction is now underway following the 2018 eruption and summit collapse, which compounds traffic and reduces parking at the summit of Kīlauea.”

From the National Park Service:

The nearly two-year disaster recovery project includes the removal of the former Jaggar Museum and USGS-operated facilities, the Okamura Building and the Annex, at Uēkahuna. A new USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory field station is being built near the historic ballfield at Kilauea Military Camp.

The project also includes the construction of an administrative lane at the park entrance and a roundabout west of the entrance, with work and temporary traffic control scheduled to begin in mid-March 2024. The new configuration will improve safety and congestion at the entrance, and help visitors explore the park more easily.

Visitors are urged to plan ahead, expect delays and the potential for temporary area closures, especially if an eruption happens and visitation spikes while the project is underway. A new park webpage summarizes the construction impacts.

Across the 400 national parks under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, there was a total of 325.5 million visitors in 2023, an increase of 13 million or 4% over the year before. Visitation data helps guide how the National Park Service manages its parks, and the Visitation Statistics Dashboard provides recreational visit statistics for every park in the US for 2023.