“From Arches to Zion, the 13 national park units of Utah attract visitors from within the state, across the country and around the world,” NPS Intermountain Region Director Sue Masica said. “Whether they are out for a weekend, a school field trip, or a month-long vacation, visitors come to have a great experience, and end up spending some money along the way.
This new report also shows that national park tourism is a significant driver in the national economy – returning $10 for every $1 invested in the Park Service – and a big factor in Utah’s economy. That’s a result we can all support.”
The most visited national parks in Utah in 2016 included five with more than 1 million visitors each: Zion National Park (4,295,147), Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (3,239,525), and Bryce Canyon (2,365,111), Arches (1,585,719), and Capitol Reef (1,064,904) national parks.
Utah’s eight other NPS units include Canyonlands National Park; Cedar Breaks, Dinosaur, Hovenweep, Natural Bridges, Rainbow Bridge and Timpanogos Cave national monuments and Golden Spike National Historic Site.
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. The report shows $18.4 billion of direct spending by 331 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 318,000 jobs nationally, with 271,544 of the jobs in those park gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $34.9 billion.
According to the 2016 report, most park visitor spending, by percentage, was for lodging (31.2 percent), followed by food and beverages (27.2), gas and oil (11.7), admissions and fees (10.2), souvenirs and other expenses (9.7), local transportation (7.4), and camping fees (2.5).
New interactive online tool
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 NPS Social Science Program webpage online. This report includes information for visitor spending by park and by state.
To learn more about national parks in Utah and how the National Park Service works with communities to help preserve local history, conserve the environment, and provide outdoor recreation, go to the National Park Service Utah webpages online.
About the National Park Service
More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 417 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Visit the National Park Service online, on Facebook, on Twitter and on YouTube.
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Yet now our Local National parks ( Zion, Bryce, Arches, etc ) as so overcrowded from mid March until December each and every year now because of the Mighty 5 campaign, that the local population can no longer enjoy it, so enjoy “Heaven”…as it’s becoming hell because of pure greed