The National Park Service reported record visitation numbers in 2023, and along with that came a record high $55.6 billion in visitor spending. The study of visitor spending and its effect near the park has come to be colloquially known as “Parkonomics.”
The over 400 park units saw 325.5 million recreation visits, an increase of 4% over 2022, according to a park release.
Often, visitor spending directly impacts “gateway communities,” or communities near park entrances.
The 2023 National Park Visitor Spending Effects report found that visitors spent $26.4 billion in communities near national parks. Spending in these communities supported 415,400 jobs, provided $19.4 billion in labor income, and $55.6 billion in economic output to the U.S. economy.
“I’m so proud that our parks and the stories we tell make a lasting impact on more than 300 million visitors a year,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams. “And 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 report totals the amount of both direct and secondary effects of visitor spending. While direct effects are easily quantifiable benefits that come from the sales, income and employment resulting from direct visitor purchases of goods and services, secondary effects are more nuanced.
The NPS defines secondary effects as “the sales, income and employment resulting from the ripple effect of National Park Service visitor spending throughout a regional economy.” This ripple effect is created by local businesses purchasing supplies and labor as well as employees spending their incomes in the community.
NPS has created an interactive tool where site visitors can see year-by-year trend data and explore current year visitor spending.
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