Banff National Park recorded more than 4.5 million visitors in the 2025-26 fiscal year, surpassing the previous high of 4.28 million in 2023-24, continuing nearly annual growth over the past decade.
Visitation is tracked from April to March.
“I think one of the things that will be certain is Banff will continue to be a place people will want to come to,” Daniella Rubeling, acting superintendent of Banff National Park, said, as reported by CBC News.
Visitor numbers had dropped to three million during the COVID-19 pandemic but rebounded quickly.
Rubeling highlighted initiatives such as a three-year paid parking pilot at Upper Hot Springs, shuttles to Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, and efforts to encourage the use of Roam transit as strategies to reduce crowding.
She said an expert panel on sustainable visitor movement is expected to release more information later this year.
Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno raised concerns about the timing of some initiatives, noting high visitor concentration during events such as a packed skijoring weekend earlier this year, when “a growing Calgary decides to show up all at the same time.”
François Masse, superintendent of the Lake Louise, Yoho, and Kootenay field unit, said iconic destinations such as Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, and Banff townsite remain “highly sought after.”
Masse noted other areas, including Bow and Peyto lakes on the Icefields Parkway and Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park, are also under review, though no immediate plans are in place.
“The visitor pressure is very intense in very specific spots,” he said, adding that quieter locations are accessible within a short drive from popular sites.
Peter Duck, president of Bow Valley Naturalists, warned that even limited visitor access has cumulative ecological effects. “You can’t just carve an ecosystem up like that. … The three per cent has a very significant impact on the ecosystems,” he said.