Question: How many people visit the Grand Canyon national Park each year?
About the article "Grand Canyon", section "Grand Canyon tourism".

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Grand Canyon may refer to:  The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, United States (the best-known "Grand Canyon") *Grand Canyon National Park, surrounding the canyon in Arizona *Grand Canyon Village, Arizona, a community within the national park Grand Canyon may also refer to: 
The known history of the Grand Canyon area stretches back 10,500 years, when the first evidence of human presence in the area is found.
Native Americans have inhabited the Grand Canyon and the area now covered by Grand Canyon National Park for at least the last 4,000 of those years.
Ancestral Pueblo peoples, first as the Basketmaker culture and later as the more familiar Pueblo people, developed from the Desert Culture as they became less nomadic and more dependent on agriculture.
A similar culture, the Cohonina, also lived in the canyon area.
Drought in the late 13th century likely caused both groups to move on.
Other people followed, including the Paiute, Cerbat, and the Navajo, only to be later forced onto reservations by the United States Government.
In September 1540, under direction by conquistador Francisco Vásquez de Coronado to find the fabled Seven Cities of Gold, Captain Garcia Lopez de Cardenas led a party of Spanish soldiers with Hopi guides to the Grand Canyon.
More than 200 years passed before two Spanish priests became the second party of non-Native Americans to see the canyon.
U.S. Army Major John Wesley Powell led the 1869 Powell Geographic Expedition through the canyon on the Colorado River.
This and later study by geologists uncovered the geology of the Grand Canyon area and helped to advance that science.
In the late 19th century, the promise of mineral resources—mainly copper and asbestos—renewed interest in the region.
The first pioneer settlements along the rim came in the 1880s.
Early residents soon realized that tourism was destined to be more profitable than mining, and by the turn of the 20th century the Grand Canyon was a well-known tourist destination.
Most visitors made the gruelling trip from nearby towns to the South Rim by stagecoach.
In 1901 the Grand Canyon Railway was opened from Williams, Arizona, to the South Rim, and the development of formal tourist facilities, especially at Grand Canyon Village, increased dramatically.
The Fred Harvey Company developed many facilities at the Grand Canyon, including the luxury El Tovar Hotel on the South Rim in 1905 and Phantom Ranch in the Inner Gorge in 1922.
Although first afforded federal protection in 1893 as a forest reserve and later as a U.S. National Monument, the Grand Canyon did not achieve U.S. National Park status until 1919, three years after the creation of the National Park Service.
Today, Grand Canyon National Park receives about five million visitors each year, a far cry from the annual visitation of 44,173 in 1919. 
Much debate has existed around the risks and benefits of mining around the Grand Canyon and Colorado River.
These topics are still widely debated today.
The first major controversy discussed is the mining’s effects on the Colorado River and its water.
In her article, Suzanne Goldenberg quotes the president of the League of Conservation voters Gene Karpinski: "Extending the current moratorium on new uranium mining claims will protect drinking water for millions downstream.” Many environmental groups agree that the mining would endanger the Colorado River as a source of water for tens of millions of people and countless wildlife.
Major cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas and even Los Angeles rely on the river for healthy, drinkable water.
With areas of contamination already noted in United States environmental impact reports on old mining operations, opposition fears that allowing mining to expand and continue would only increase the levels of contamination in the river.
With this risk in mind, supporters of the mining around the Grand Canyon argue that large-scale contamination from accidents involving mining are unlikely.
According to an Arizona Geological survey, “60 metric tons of dissolved uranium is naturally carried by the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon in an average year".
J.E.
Spencer, AZGS Senior Geologist, argues that in one hypothetical, worst-case scenario experiment, a truck carrying “thirty metric tons (66,000 pounds) of one-percent uranium ore” spilling and washing into the Colorado River increases the natural uranium level in the river by an insignificant amount.
Providing further data on uranium levels in the Colorado River, a 2010 United States Geological survey found that the river carries about 40 to 80 tons through the canyon each year.
Opposition to mining around the Grand Canyon also lists tourism-related jobs as a major risk of the mining.
The WISE Uranium Project cites The Public News Service as it stated that in 2011 many small businesses across Arizona advocated to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar sign the 20-year ban on new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon in order to preserve thousands of tourism-related jobs.
More than 200 small businesses in Arizona addressed postcards to Salazar to support signing the moratorium.
President of the League of Conservation voters Gene Karpinski agreed that protecting the tourism industry, which relies on the Grand Canyon, is more important economically than allowing mining companies to act on their claims around the canyon.
Opposition to the mining argues that the mining jobs created by allowing mining around the Grand Canyon would not be worth the natural risks such as water contamination.
In contrast, support of the mining argues that halting the progress in job creation within the mining industry would be a mistake.
Jonathan DuHamel states that a permanent ban on mining would eliminate hundreds of potential jobs.
Former presidential candidate John McCain argues that opposition to the mining provoked by environmental groups who have the goal of killing mining and grazing jobs throughout Arizona.
Yet another issue arises as opposition to the mining advocates for the Grand Canyon as an important tourist attraction itself.
Many believe that the park is one of the country’s most popular national parks.
Coconino County Supervisor Carl Taylor noted that Uranium mining poses a great threat to the safety of this tourism in the canyon and surrounding areas.
Many believe that one mining accident could be destructive for tourism in this extremely visited park.
Even without accidents, the Environmental Working Group believes that proposed mines in the north of the canyon require helicopter transportation of supplies that intersects with many tourist flyovers that already exist in the area.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar states that “the Grand Canyon attracts more than 4 million visitors a year and generates an estimated $3.5 billion in economic activity”.
In his speech to the National Geographic Museum, Salazar also stated that people from the United States and even all over the world come to visit and see the Grand Canyon.
He believes that allowing mining in this area to be pursued would negatively impact this tourism industry.
Just as the opposition argues for the protection of tourism, supporters of the mining claim that not allowing it to occur will only drive up uranium prices and hurt both federal and local economies.
The increasing number of claims that began in 2006 was a direct result of the rising uranium prices that began that year.
The Environmental Working Group cited that “uranium prices have jumped from about $10 a pound in 2004 to approximately $80 a pound today , caused by renewed interest in nuclear power”.
With the prices of uranium increasing, it is becoming more profitable for mining companies to locate and mine new deposits like the ones found around the canyon area.
Even in 2011, when the price of uranium lowered about 35%, it remained profitable for companies to use these untouched areas.
Similarly, many Republicans argue that not allowing the mining to occur destroys years of resource development.
Hal Quinn, president and CEO of the National Mining Association states that banning mining in the Grand Canyon only deprives the United States of energy and minerals that are critical to the survival and strength of our economy.
The mining industry agrees, believing that a ban on mining around the Grand Canyon would negatively impact Arizona’s local economy and the United States’ energy independence. 
Grand Canyon Airlines and Air Grand Canyon are headquartered on the grounds of Grand Canyon National Park Airport in Tusayan. 
The Grand Canyon National Park is a U.S. National Park located in the state of Arizona.
The Park encompasses the Grand Canyon and the surrounding rim areas.
The Park maintains an intricate trail system both above and below the rims of the canyon.
To properly maintain and supervise the many trails and campgrounds in the backcountry of the Grand Canyon, Park implemented a system of zoning the different areas of the canyon and the surrounding rim area into backcountry "use areas," designated by a two-letter, one-number code system.
This code is used when applying for the required permits for any backcounty overnight camping and backpacking.
Permits must be purchased from the Park for any overnight camping done in the within its borders.
When applying for a permit, the permit-holder declares his/her intended camping schedule, by using the code for each area he/she intends on camping in, and stating how many days he/she will remain in the area.
The Park also created rules and regulations to help protect and preserve the Grand Canyon.
These rules and regulations, such as Leave No Trace, range from limits on the amount of campers in one area, to rules that the campers must follow for safety and protection of the wildlife and wilderness.
This system helps to assure the Grand Canyon remains one of the world's great wonders.