Report: Substantial Economic Benefit for Yellowstone and Grand Teton Communities

A new report on the economic benefits from national park tourism concluded that visitors to Grand Teton National Park and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway numbered well over four million in 2014, and those visitors spent more than $532 million in the gateway communities of northwestern Wyoming. That spending also supported 8,548 jobs in the communities of Jackson, Teton Village, and Dubois, Wyoming, as well as the nearby towns of Driggs and Victor, Idaho. In the amount of visitor spending for 2014, Grand Teton ranked among the top five national park areas along with Blue Ridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Denali National Park & Preserve, and Grand Canyon National Park.

The report also shows that more than 3.5 million visitors to Yellowstone National Park in 2014 spent $421 million in communities near the park. That spending supported 6,662 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $543.7 million.

According to the just released 2014 analysis and report, national park tourism had a cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy of $29.7 billion and supported 277,000 jobs across the country—with 235,600 of those occurring within gateway communities.

Information on the economic benefits of national park tourism comes from a peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis conducted for the National Park Service by U.S. Geological Survey economists. The 2014 report shows $15.7 billion of direct spending by 292.8 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. Most spending was for lodging (30.6 percent) followed by food and beverages (20.3 percent), gas and oil (11.9 percent), admissions and fees (10.2 percent) and souvenirs and other expenses (9.9 percent).

To download the 2014 visitor spending report, please click here.



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