March 8, 2023

Visitation to Gateway Arch National Park jumped by 41% from 2021 to 2022! Nearly 1.62 million visitors came to the Gateway Arch in 2022, marking a 475,000-person increase compared to 2021.

This year is off to an exceptionally strong start: Park staff reported the highest January tram ridership in 17 years! And the first two months of 2023 have seen a 36% attendance increase over 2022’s numbers.

At Gateway Arch Park Foundation, we experienced a similar jump in visitation numbers in 2022, including record attendance for our largest events. Blues at the Arch Festival, co-hosted with the National Blues Museum, returned in-person in August 2022 after two years of being virtual and saw nearly 9,000 attendees over its two-day run. 

Winterfest, our 22-day-long winter celebration in Kiener Plaza anchored by a pop-up ice rink, saw about 38,500 guests, a 46% increase compared to 2021. We also saw a rise in attendance for our free Sunrise Yoga/Bootcamp series, as well as our two key fundraisers Picnic in your Park and An Iconic Evening.

Executive director Ryan McClure noted, “In 2022, the City of St. Louis benefited from amazing development projects, from the now-completed Armory and new soccer stadium to the upcoming residential projects on Laclede’s Landing and the AT&T Building. We are hopeful that all of these exciting projects, combined with small business momentum in the city, will drive attendance numbers even higher this year.”