The Buffalo National River continues to bring benefits to the local economy. A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows nearly 1.8 million visitors to the river last year spent over $77.5 million in the park’s surrounding communities. According the report, the money supported 1,200 jobs in the area and had a cumulative benefit of over $90 million.
The analysis was conducted by economists of the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. On the national level, $18.4 billion of direct spending by 331 million park visitors in in communities within 60 miles of a national park. The money supported 318,000 jobs across the country, and over 271,000 are in the gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $34.9 billion.
For this year’s report, the authors produced an interactive tool. Current year spending, jobs and other factors for national, state and local economies can be viewed online at the NPS Social Science Program webpage.
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