REPORT: Big Bend National Park contributed $56 million to local economy

BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, Texas (KOSA) -A new National Park Service report shows that in 2022, 514,000 visitors spent over $48 million in local regions while visiting Big Bend National Park and Rio Grande Wild & Scenic River.

The spending supported 659 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $56 million.

”Since 1916, the National Park Service has been entrusted with the care of our national parks. With the help of volunteers and partners, we safeguard these special places and share their stories with more than 300 million visitors every year. The impact of tourism to national parks is undeniable: bringing jobs and revenue to communities in every state in the country and making national parks an essential driver to the national economy,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams.

The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was done by economists at the National Park Service. The report looked at NPS units across the country and 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 communities.

The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $50.3 billion.The authors of this report 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 webpage: www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htmTo learn more about national parks in Texas and how the National Park Service works with Texas communities to help preserve local history, conserve the environment, and provide outdoor recreation, go to www.nps.gov/texas