With 2,298,288 visitors recorded in the first nine months of 2024, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS) is on track to have another busy year.
Per statistics from the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, CHNS recorded the following monthly totals for 2024:
- January – 77,193
- February – 79,256
- March – 154,935
- April – 197,239
- May – 267,243
- June – 404,323
- July – 447,891
- August – 369,965
- September – 300,243
In recent history, this is comparable to 2023, which had 2,359,123 visitors for January through September, but it’s less than record-breaking 2021.
2021, (which was during the height of the pandemic), had the highest visitation ever recorded, and was also the first time that CHNS visitation surpassed the 3 million mark.
In 2023, the CHNS received a total of 2,826,169 visitors, which made it the fourth busiest year at the National Seashore on record, behind 2021, 2002, and 2022.
Seashore visitation estimates are collected by counting southbound vehicles just north of the Marc Basnight Bridge and using a multiplier to estimate the total number of passengers heading south. Those estimates are added to the number of passengers going to Ocracoke Island from Cedar Island and Swan Quarter.
Visitor totals for the past five years, per the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau’s statistics, are listed below.
