WYOMING — A new report by the National Park Service (NPS) analyzes the financial impact made by national park visitors to gateway communities.
According to the report, 3.3 million visitors to Yellowstone National Park (YNP) in 2022 (the year of the park’s historic flood) spent $452 million in communities near the park. YNP says that spending supported 6,234 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $600 million.
Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) reported 2.8 million visitors in 2022, spending $597 million in gateway communities on items such as gas, camping, groceries, hotel, recreation, restaurants, retail and transportation. GTNP says this spending supported 7,610 jobs, $267 million in labor income, $438 million in value added and $757 million in economic output in local communities.
“Since 1916, the National Park Service has been entrusted with the care of our national parks,” NPS Director Chuck Sams said in a press release. “With the help of volunteers and partners, we safeguard these special places and share their stories with more than 300 million visitors every year. The impact of tourism to national parks is undeniable: bringing jobs and revenue to communities in every state in the country and making national parks an essential driver to the national economy.”
NPS economists conducted the report and visitor spending analysis was subject to peer review.
The report states that nearly 312 million park visitors spent a total of $23.9 billion in communities within 60 miles of a national park, which NPS tallies as supporting 378,400 jobs across the country, 314,600 of which are located in gateway communities. NPS calls this a cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy of $50.3 billion.
Visitor spending was broken down into such categories as lodging, restaurants, camping, recreation and more. The chart below was included in the NPS report.
Lodging was reported as the dominant spending area with nearly $9 billion in 2022, followed by restaurants at $4.6 billion.
Also noteworthy is the report’s breakdown of state-by-state statistics, which places Wyoming at a total of $870 million from 6,148,010 recreation visits in 2022.
Read the full report here.
