Report shows visitor spending supports 164 jobs in local economy
— from Brandon Cadwell for National Park Service —
A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that 255 thousand visitors to San Juan Island National Historical Park in 2018 spent $15.1 million dollars in communities near the park. That spending supported 164 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $19.3 million in economic output in local communities.
“San Juan Island National Historical Park welcomes visitors from across the country and around the world,” said Superintendent Elexis Fredy. “We are delighted to share the story of this place and the experiences it provides. We also feature the park as a way to introduce our visitors to this part of the country and all that it offers. 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. We appreciate the partnership and support of our neighbors and are glad to be able to give back by helping to sustain local communities.”
The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists Catherine Cullinane Thomas and Egan Cornachione of the U.S. Geological Survey and Lynne Koontz of the National Park Service. The report shows $20.2 billion of direct spending by more than 318 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 329,000 jobs nationally; 268,000 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $40.1 billion.
Lodging expenses account for the largest share of visitor spending, about $6.8 billion in 2018. Food expenses are the second largest spending area and visitors spent $4 billion in restaurants and bars and another $1.4 billion at grocery and convenience stores.
Visitor spending on lodging supported more than 58,000 jobs and more than 61,000 jobs in restaurants. Visitor spending in the recreation industries supported more than 28,000 jobs and spending in retail supported more than 20,000 jobs.
Report authors also produce an interactive tool that enables users to explore 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: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm
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Does this study include cost analyses (housing crisis, income disparity, infrastructure wear and tear, paving (and deforesting) paradise to put up parking lots and more “cottages” jammed so close together there is ZERO privacy, locals unable to make ferry reservations for medical appointments or emergencies, noplace to park and less and less places to NOT impacted by someone’s inane cell phone or Alexis music blasted full volume so we can no longer hear the songbirds or frogs, death of cottage industries with the round trips ordinance, vacation rental madness… etc etc etc … as well as the benefits touted in this spending analysis?
And if you believe any of the numbers in the above article, you probably believed it when 15 years ago Moran Park reported that they had had 1 million visitors that summer. Those numbers were generated by things like a “counter” across the road which measured each car heading towards Moran Park (but forgetting to subtract all the folks who live on that side of the Island — at least 1,000 — and are only driving to the grocery store which created two “ticks” on the counter — out and back) then the counter numbers were multiplied by five on the assumption that each car carried five passengers going to the Park. Please don’t buy into it.
Let us put a good portion of this substantial amount of money back into the preservation of our land, wildlife, health, old growth, farm lands, education, social services, arts, gardens, beaches, sea life, music, air quality, elimination of plastics, whale and salmon recovery….the list goes on and on. How come so few of these tourism dollars trickle down to the issues that really matter on our island?
These estimates tend to made of whole cloth. I assume that the Park counts every person who enters any of the sites, and then attributes to that person lodging, food and trinket spending. The real question is what are the countervailing costs of visitors to the Park?
And the money does not come into the County coffers directly. It is money spent to stay in inns and houses, to clean them, to buy food, etc. Some tax money arises from those transactions but most simply helps our local business es stay in operation.
First paragraph above claims that there were an average of 698.6 visitors to San Juan National Historic Park every day of last year…do you really believe that?????
And if you believe any of the numbers in the above article, you probably believed it when 15 years ago Moran Park reported that they had had 1 million visitors that summer. Those numbers were generated by things like a “counter” across the road which measured each car heading towards Moran Park (but forgetting to subtract all the folks who live on that side of the Island — at least 1,000 — and are only driving to the grocery store which created two “ticks” on the counter — out and back) then the counter numbers were multiplied by five on the assumption that each car carried five passengers going to the Park. Please don’t buy in to any of this!