2023 national park visitor spending effects: Economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation
Flyr M and Koontz L. 2024. 2023 national park visitor spending effects: Economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation. Science Report. NPS/SR—2024/174. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2305351
The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports economic activity within park gateway communities. This report summarizes the annual economic contribution analysis that measures how NPS visitor spending cycles through local economies, generating business sales and supporting jobs and income. In 2023, the National Park System received 325.5 million recreation visits (up 4% from 2022). Visitors to national parks spent an estimated $26.4 billion in local gateway regions (up 10% from 2022). The estimated contribution of this spending to the national economy was 415,400 jobs, $19.4 billion in labor income, $32 billion in value added, and $55.6 billion in economic output. The lodging sector saw the highest direct effects, with $9.9 billion in economic output directly contributed to this sector nationally. The restaurants sector saw the next greatest effects, with $5.2 billion in economic output directly contributed to this sector nationally. Results from the Visitor Spending Effects report series are available online via an interactive tool. Users can view year-by-year trend data and explore current year visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and economic output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. The interactive tool is available at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Flyr, Matthew; Koontz, Lynne
- Date of Issue
- 2024-08
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2305351
- Units
- EQD , NRSS
- Keywords
- Economic Impact, National Park, Visitor Spending