I am fortunate to live only about 45 minutes from Dollywood, making it relatively simple to hop over for the day or even for a couple of hours. But as I was walking through the parking lot a few weeks ago, I was amazed to see so many license plates from out of state! I quickly counted 10 unique states as I glanced around. It surprised me to discover that even during a pandemic – definitely NOT a normal year – people from all over were making their way to visit Dollywood. I think particularly now, in this stressful world we’re all living in, Dollywood provides a sweet escape and change of scenery that many of us need and long for!

So, I inquired about visitors and their geographic demographics. Here’s what I discovered:

🌎 Even in 2020, there have been visitors from all 50 of the states in the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands! There were also a number of visitors from foreign countries.

🎟️ On average, Season Passholders visited Dollywood more than once this season. And, it wasn’t surprising to me that nearly half of all Passholders have a Tennessee address.

🇺🇸 Confirming that 2020 wasn’t an anomaly (for Dollywood guest visitation, anyway!), I saw that all 50 states were again represented on the guest rolls in 2019.

🍊 The state with the most visitors? Tennessee!

🦌 The state with the least? Montana.

👪 Season Passholders accounted for nearly half the attendance in 2019 between Dollywood and Dollywood’s Splash Country.

Here’s a map view of where guests hail from. You can see the southeast is very well represented.

The next time you visit the park, take note of the many varied states you see on the license plates as well as the locations you see on guests’ shirts. With Dolly Parton’s universal appeal continuing to rise, and with the world-class park she has helped create, you can be sure Dollywood will draw crowds from all over the world on a regular basis!