Native Plant Conservation News: National Park Visitors Contribute $32 Billion to U.S. Economy - National Parks Support 295,000 Jobs!
August 22, 2016
National Parks and other protected lands are often criticized as drains on the economy and as costing jobs. A 2016 report by the National Park Service once again increases the overwhelming evidence that the opposite is in fact true. Protected Lands provide jobs and valuable economic benefits, in addition to conserving biological diversity, incredible natural beauty, and vital ecosystem services.
The report found that National Parks continue to grow both in popularity and in direct contributions to local, state and national economies. Between 2012 and 2016, the number of people who visited National Parks grew by more than 25 million and the spending by those visitors rose by more than $2 billion.
President Obama established a Centennial Initiative for the NPS anniversary and Congress is considering a
centennial act to support a multi-year effort to invest wisely in the park system’s most important assets, use parks to enhance informal learning, engage volunteers, provide training opportunities for youth, and enhance the NPS’s ability to leverage partnerships to accomplish its mission.
National Park Visitor Spending Contributions to the U.S. Economy 2012-15
|
|
Visitation
|
Visitor Spending
|
Jobs Supported
|
Local Jobs
|
Total Output
|
|
2012
|
282,765,682
|
$14.7 billion
|
242,712
|
201,040
|
$26.8 billion
|
|
2013
|
273,630,895
|
$14.6 billion
|
237,599
|
197,343
|
$26.5 billion
|
|
2014
|
292,800,082
|
$15.7 billion
|
276,960
|
235,600
|
$29.7 billion
|
|
2015
|
307,247,252
|
$16.9 billion
|
295,339
|
252,030
|
$32 billion
|
Download the
Full Report or visit the National Park Service’s excellent
interactive website for more information on National Parks in your local area and other interesting National Parks economic facts. Users can explore visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. Users can also view year-by-year trend data.
