Tourism, Travel & Traffic Counts

NATIONAL & STATE PARK VISITOR COUNTS

• Visits to Coronado National Memorial in Cochise County totaled 164,426 in 2024, up 17.4% from the year prior, following annual increases of 1.2% in 2022 and 7.5% in 2023. Coronado National Memorial was the only exception in Cochise County to the COVID-related drop in visits in 2020 and rebound of 2021, with an overall increase in annual visits of 19.9% in 2020 (the first year of the pandemic) followed by a decline of 16.9% in 2021. From 2019 through 2024, the annual number of visits to Coronado National Memorial was up 26.2%.
• Visits to Kartchner Caverns State Park in Benson totaled 155,562 in 2024, up 16.3% from the year prior, following an annual decline of 1.9% in 2023. That was on the heels of annual growth of 26.5% in 2021 and 30.8% in 2022 (the strong performance in those years, however, followed a 53.3% annual decline in 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic). Despite strong overall growth from 2021 through 2024, annual visits to Kartchner Caverns in 2024 were still down 11.8% from 176,464 in 2019, the year prior to the pandemic.
• Chiricahua National Monument visits totaled 71,392 in 2024, up 14.1% from the year prior, after increasing 19.2% in 2021, 14.9% in 2022, and 2.0% in 2023 (after a COVID-related decline of 26.1% in 2020). Overall, the annual number of visits to Chiricahua National Monument was up 17.7% from 2019 through 2024.
• Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park visits totaled 37,139 in 2024, up 0.2% from the year prior. That was after an annual decline of 7.6% in 2023 (following annual increases of 43.9% in 2021 and 8.1% in 2022, rebounding from a 45.8% COVID-related drop back in 2020). The annual number of visitors in 2024 was down 21.9% from the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
• Fort Bowie National Historic Site visits totaled 8,483 in 2024, up 1.8% from the year prior. That followed a 5.3% annual increase in 2023 after falling 14.7% in 2022 (following a 43.7% jump in 2021, rebounding from a COVID-related decline of 14.8% in 2020). Overall, from 2019, the year prior to the pandemic, through 2024, the annual number of visits to Fort Bowie was up 12.0%.

IMPACT OF TOURISM & TRAVEL

• According to research by Dean Runyan Associates for Arizona Office of Tourism, Cochise County's travel industry (including business and leisure travel) generated $390 million in direct spending countywide in 2023, up 1.4% from the year prior (that followed increases of 63.5% in 2021 and 13.8% in 2022, rebounding from a 40.1% COVID-related drop in 2020, the first year of the pandemic). Travel-related direct spending in 2023 was at a record high (with records back to 1998, not adjusted for inflation). Cochise County's travel industry supported 3,500 jobs countywide in 2023 (up 2.9% from the year prior) with household earnings of $103.5 million (up 6% from 2022), according to the study.

See spreadsheets, below, for monthly and annual Cochise County national and state park visitor counts by attraction, including national monuments and memorials (updated twice annually).

In 2023, the busiest stretch of highway in Cochise County was Interstate 10 between Skyline Rd and State Route 90 in Benson, with an average annual daily traffic count (AADT) of 33,834, according to data from Arizona Department of Transportation. Off the interstate, the busiest stretch of highway was State Route 92 in Sierra Vista, from State Route 90 (Fry Blvd) to East Foothills Dr, with an average of 27,662 vehicles daily.

See spreadsheets, below, for annual Cochise County traffic counts for all measured stretches of US and state routes countywide