Categorized | Business

National park tourism creates $278M in economic benefit

MEDIA RELEASE

A new National Park Service report for 2011 shows the 4.7 million visitors to national parks in Hawaii spent $278 million in communities surrounding those parks.

This spending supported 3,330 jobs across the state.

“The national parks in Hawaii are great places to learn about America’s story,” said NPS Regional Director Chris Lehnertz. “We attract visitors from across the U.S. and around the world who come here to experience these parks and then spend time and money enjoying the services provided by our neighboring communities and getting to know all that this state has to offer. The National Park Service is proud to have been entrusted with the care of America’s most treasured places and delighted that the visitors we welcome generate significant contributions to the local, state, and national economy.”

To download the report – which provides park-by-park information – visit www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/products.cfm#MGM and click on Economic Benefits to Local Communities from National Park Visitation and Payroll, 2011.

The national parks in Hawaii included in this study are: Haleakala National Park, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Kaloko-Honokohua National Historical Park, Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park, Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site, and World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument.

The information is part of a peer-reviewed spending analysis of national park visitors across the country conducted by Michigan State University for the National Park Service.

For 2011, that report shows $13 billion of direct spending by 279 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park.

That visitor spending had a $30 billion impact on the entire U.S. economy and supported 252,000 jobs nationwide.

Most visitor spending supports jobs in lodging, food, and beverage service (63 percent) followed by recreation and entertainment (17 percent), other retail (11 percent), transportation and fuel (7 percent) and wholesale and manufacturing (2 percent.)

— Find out more:
www.nps.gov/hi

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