A new National Park Service report shows that 78,000 visitors to Pipestone National Monument in 2022 spent $5.2 million in communities near the park. That spending supported 72 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $6.9 million.
The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists at the National Park Service. Nationwide, the report shows $23.9 billion of direct spending by nearly 312 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 378,400 jobs nationally; 314,600 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $50.3 billion.
As for the economics of visitor spending, the lodging sector had the highest direct effects, with $9 billion in economic output nationally. The restaurants sector had the second greatest effects, with $4.6 billion in economic output nationally.
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