Park visitors spent $199 million last year
<p>View of Kintla Peak, one of the greater than ten thousand feet peaks in Glacier, catches some early morning rays on Sunday, April 10, in Glacier National Park. Photos were taken while flying with Two Bear Air. (Brenda Ahearn/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
Glacier visitor spending supports 3,474 local jobs
A new National Park Service report shows that the nearly 2.4 million visitors to Glacier National Park in 2015 spent $199 million in communities near the park.
That spending supported 3,474 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $268.6 million, according to the study by two federal economists.
The 2015 numbers are up from 2012’s totals of $172 million in visitor spending supporting 2,800 jobs and a cumulative local economic impact of $218.2 million.
The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists Catherine Cullinane Thomas of the U.S. Geological Survey and Lynne Koontz of the National Park Service.
Overall, the report shows $16.9 billion of direct spending by 307.2 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 295,000 jobs nationally; 252,000 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities.
The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $32 billion.
According to the 2015 report, most park visitor spending was for lodging (31.1 percent) followed by food and beverages (20.2 percent), gas and oil (11.8 percent), admissions and fees (10.2 percent) and souvenirs and other expenses (9.8 percent).
Report authors this year produced an interactive tool. Users can explore current year 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.
The interactive tool and report are available at the Park Service Social Science Program webpage: http://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/economics.cfm.
The report includes information for visitor spending at individual parks and by state.
“National park tourism is a significant driver in the national economy, returning $10 for every $1 invested in the National Park Service, and it’s a big factor in our local economy as well,” Glacier Park Superintendent Jeff Mow said in a news release.
“We appreciate the partnership and support of our neighbors and are glad to be able to give back by helping to sustain local communities.”