In 2023, the 325 million visitors to national parks spent an estimated $26.4 billion dollars. Visitors spent this money in what the National Park Service (NPS) calls a “local gateway region,” or local economies near a national park. A local gateway region includes nearby towns and counties where park visitors usually stop to shop or stay overnight. For most parks, it’s defined as all counties within 60 miles of the park’s boundary.

Adjusted for inflation, 2023 visitor spending was the highest in a decade. The second-highest was 2019 at $25.03 billion. But right after that came 2020. The biggest single-year spending drop was from 2019 to 2020 — when the COVID-19 pandemic restricted visits to national parks and related spending had its biggest single year drop, down 31.8% to $17.07 billion.

Which parks bring in the most visitor revenue?

Of the top 10 places for spending in 2023, visitors spent the most money at Great Smoky Mountains National Park: $2.2 billion. This was the only national park where visitors spent more than $2 billion.

Two other parks generated over $1 billion: Golden Gate National Recreation Area ($1.5 billion) and Blue Ridge Parkway ($1.4 billion).

Of the remaining top parks, visitor spending ranged between $559.4 million and $768.4 million.

How do national parks impact the economy?

NPS tracks visitor spending by eight categories:

  • Camping fees in national and non-national parks
  • Gas
  • Groceries
  • Lodging at hotels, motels, and other specialty lodging
  • Recreation including equipment rental, tourist activities, and tour/guide fees (this does not include NPS entrance fees)
  • Restaurants
  • Retail shopping, including souvenirs
  • Local transportation expenses

In 2023, about 37.5% of park visitor spending was for lodging, totaling $9.9 billion. People spent more on lodging than anything else.

Visitors spent the second most on restaurants, which accounted for 19.5% of visitor spending.

Spending on gas, recreation, and retail were between $2.1 billion and $2.8 billion each. The lowest spending was on groceries ($1.7 billion) and camping ($560 million).

Based on visitor spending, the NPS can calculate four economic effects:

  • Economic output: The total value of goods and services produced thanks to visitor spending. It includes both business-to-business sales and sales directly to consumers.
  • Value added to GDP: The boost visitor spending contributes to a region’s GDP. The value added is the difference between what an industry sells a product for and how much it costs to make it. Value added to GPD is a subset of economic output.
  • Jobs: Full and part-time jobs supported by visitor spending.
  • Labor income: Employee and sole proprietor wages, salaries, and payroll benefits that are supported by visitor spending.

In 2023, park visitor spending amounted to $32.0 billion in value added to GPD. These economic effects can be direct or secondary.

A direct effect is a result of visitor spending in a gateway economy. For example, a family dining out at a restaurant or buying a souvenir from a local retailer. In 2023, about 43.5% (or $13.94 billion) value added to local GDPs was direct.

A secondary effect is when employees of businesses in gateway economies spend their income locally. In 2023, over half of value added to GDP was secondary (56.6%, or around $18.09 billion). In other words, visitor spending increases local economic activity as employees spend their wages nearby.

Economic output, while a slightly different concept, followed a similar trend: Nearly 40% was directly related to visitor spending, 60% was secondary.

While value added only considers the visitor transaction to purchase a good or service, economic output includes that purchase, as well as transactions prior to that, from business to business, to support the customer transaction.

For example, if a restaurant purchases a case of eggs to make omelets and a customer buys an omelet, economic output considers both transactions. Value added strictly accounts for the customer’s purchase.

How do national parks support employment?

In 2023, there were 415,400 jobs in local economies tied to supporting National Park visitors, generating $19.4 billion in wages and salaries.

California had the most jobs supported by park visitors (39,700), and North Carolina was close behind at 38,800 jobs.

Nearly 60% of these jobs directly supported park visitors, while the remaining 40% were secondary effect jobs created by the local economy. In this context, a secondary effect job results from people living and working in a NPS economy. For example, a local tour guide (a direct job) spends money at a nearby pub, helping sustain a waitstaff position (a secondary effect job).

The highest share of jobs supporting park visitors were in lodging and restaurants.


Learn more about GDP in the US get the data directly in your inbox by signing up for our weekly newsletter.

Related economy articles

Read data analyses written by the USAFacts team.

Page sources and methodology

All of the data on the page was sourced directly from government agencies. The analysis and final review was performed by USAFacts.

  • National Park Service

    Visitor Spending Effects - Economic Contributions of National Park Visitor Spending

    National Park Service logo