Nearly 2.2M visits recorded at Five Rivers MetroParks last year

The Wagner Subaru Outdoor Experience, hosted by Five Rivers MetroParks, was held at Eastwood MetroPark on Saturday, Oct. 7 and Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. TOM GILLIAM / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

Credit: Tom Gilliam

Credit: Tom Gilliam

The Wagner Subaru Outdoor Experience, hosted by Five Rivers MetroParks, was held at Eastwood MetroPark on Saturday, Oct. 7 and Sunday, Oct. 8, 2023. TOM GILLIAM / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER

The Dayton region’s MetroPark system saw a nearly 7% increase in park attendance last year, with nearly 2.2 million park visits of 10 minutes or more reported by FiveRivers MetroParks.

Five Rivers MetroParks has a data dashboard on its website that includes figures for 2023 and 2024 park attendance and other statistics. Five Rivers MetroParks research and analysis manager Amy Forsthoefel walked park commissioners through the new data tool during their Friday board meeting.

Park visits of more than 10 minutes are recorded by using geofencing technology. Five Rivers reported nearly 568,000 visits to Eastwood MetroPark on Harshman Road in Dayton last year, followed by 534,601 visits to Englewood MetroPark and 447,772 visits to RiverScape MetroPark in Dayton.

The uptick in park attendance was influenced by major gains in attendance during March and October, which saw fairer weather than the year before, Forsthoefel explained.

According to Five Rivers MetroParks, total park system program attendance exceeded 183,000 — again up from 167,182 attendees in 2023.

In 2023, a total of 2,047,561 park visits were recorded.

About the Author