National Parks heat up local economies

A new report shows National Park visitor spending contributed $40 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018 and supported 329,000 hospitality jobs.

In Wyoming, 7.7 million park visitors spent an estimated $928 million in local gateway regions. The National Park Service estimated that supported over 12,000 jobs. Those jobs generated $359 million in labor income, $651 million in value added, and $1.1 billion in economic output in the Wyoming economy.

Of that, economic output, 36% was spent on hotels, 17% on restaurants, and about 10% each on gas, retail goods, and recreational industries. Groceries and camping made up about 6% of the economic activity and camping almost 4%.

The share of visitor spending included $629 million at Grand Teton National Park and $513 million at Yellowstone National Park.

Idaho saw 746,000 National Park visitors who spent an estimated $37.4 million in local gateway economies in 2018. That supported about 569 jobs, $15.6 million in labor income, $26.6 million in value added expenditures, resulting in $48.5 million in economic impact on the Idaho economy.

Most of the output was spent on hotels, restaurants, gas, and retail.

Craters of the Moon National Monument was the biggest National Park Service draw in Idaho at $9.2 million.

You can find more details about National Park economic impact here.