WASHINGTON - A new National Park Service (NPS) report for 2015 shows that the spending by more than 56 million visitors to national parks in the National Capital Region resulted in 16,917jobs and contributed almost $1.6 billion to the region’s economy.
“The experiences offered at the national parks of the Greater Washington area draw visitors from across the country and around the world," Regional Director Bob Vogel said. “From locals enjoying their daily jog at Prince William Forest Park or a concert at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, to tourists seeing the Lincoln Memorial for the first time, visitors to our region’s parks have a big impact on our economy, returning $10 for every $1 invested in the National Park Service."
The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists Catherine Cullinane Thomas of the U.S. Geological Survey and Lynne Koontz of the National Park Service. The report shows $16.9 billion of direct spending by 307.2 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 295,000 jobs nationally; 252,000 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $32 billion.
According to the 2015 report, most park visitor spending was for lodging (31.1 percent) followed by food and beverage (20.2 percent), gas and oil (11.8percent), admissions and fees (10.2percent) and souvenirs (9.8percent).
Report authors this year produced an interactive tool. Users can explore current year visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. Users can also view year-by-year trend data. The interactive tool and report are available at the NPS Social Science Program webpage: go.nps.gov/vse.
The report includes information for visitor spending at individual parks and by state.
National Parks in the National Capital Region Visitation (2015) Economic Benefit ($ thousands) Jobs Supported
Antietam National Battlefield 347,181 $29,466.0 298
Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial 532,051 $41,451.1 431
Catoctin Mountain Park 229,301 $18,389.8 189
Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park 4,798,312 $126,688.6 1329
Clara Barton National Historic Site 2,823 $220.6 2
Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site 681,537 $17,892.4 182
Fort Washington Park 337,432 $26, 088.1 269
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial 3,290,080 $86,374.4 878
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site 53,874 $1,412.0 13
George Washington Memorial Parkway 7,286,463 $66,515.2 847
Greenbelt Park 135,260 $10,954.0 111
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park 282,893 $19,876.0 212
Korean War Veterans Memorial 4,077,835 $107,055.3 1,088
Lincoln Memorial 7,941,771 $208,495.2 2,120
Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac 232,883 $18,143.5 188
Manassas National Battlefield Park 502,045 $38,948.9 405
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial 3,530,401 $92,683.6 941
Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site 8,249 $216.6 3
Monocacy National Battlefield 64,596 $7,395.1 76
National Capital Parks - East 1,220,404 $32,444.5 332
National Mall & Memorial Parks (National Capital Parks -- Central -- see some monuments and memorials listed separately) 1,833,085 $48,171.0 491
Piscataway Park 148,730 $11,500.5 120
President’s Park (White House) 903,161 $23,710.7 242
Prince William Forest Park 312,108 $23,149.1 233
Rock Creek Park 2,443,771 $64,341.6 656
Theodore Roosevelt Island 159,739 $12,445.0 131
Thomas Jefferson Memorial 3,102,441 $81,448.3 828
Vietnam Veterans Memorial 5,597,077 $146,940.0 1,494
Washington Monument 493,550 $12,957.2 131
Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts 407,351 $31,860.8 332
World War II Memorial 5,068,224 $133,056.0 1,352
TOTAL 56,550,891 $1,590,700.0 16,917
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
