Tourists traveling to the Grand Canyon lifted the regional economy by some $768 million last year. The wonder of the world lured 4.7 million visitors and generated some 10,000 jobs, for a total economic boost of more than $1 billion.
Meanwhile, the much lesser-known Fort Stanwix National Monument in Upstate New York drew more than 83,000 visitors who spent $5.3 million in neighboring communities.
Large or small, the United States’ network of federal parks is a valuable economic lifeline to communities across the country. That’s the message the US National Park Service is conveying in a new report about the economic lift parks gave to neighboring communities last year.
“I’m so proud that our parks and the stories we tell make a lasting impact on more than 300 million visitors a year,” National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said in a statement. “I’m just as proud to see those visitors making positive impacts of their own, by supporting local economies and jobs in every state in the country.”
The new report, 2023 National Park Visitor Spending Effects, says the parks network hosted more than 325 million visitors who spent an estimated grand total of more than $26 billion. “This spending supported 415,400 jobs, provided $19.4 billion in labor income and $55.6 billion in economic output to the U.S. economy,” NPS said.
Most visitor spending occurred at hotels. Restaurant spending constituted the second-largest expenditure attributable to national parks visitors.
Travelers to the national parks and national monuments spent about an even amount on fuel for vehicles and groceries.
Spending is trending upward. The Park Service estimates that visitors spent a total of nearly $24 billion in 2022.
Parks in the western United States attracted the greatest number of visitors and accounted for the most money spent visiting and recreating in them.
Some 400,000 people visited Craters of the Moon National Monument last year, spending more than $20 million. All federal parks in southern Idaho provided local communities with an economic lift greater than $23 million, the report states.
Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado attracted more than 500,000 visitors last year, helping neighboring communities to the tune of $75.6 million.
Dinosaur National Monument in western Colorado had a local economic impact of more than $28 million.
NPS says more than 325 million visitors flooded the parks in 2023, an increase of 4% from 2022. Parks managers are increasingly resorting to implementing reservation systems to handle the traffic during the peak summer travel months.
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