A new National Park Service report shows that 319,000 visitors to Channel Islands National Park in 2021 spent $21.3 million in communities near the park.
That spending supported 254 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $31.2 million, according to a news release.
The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists at the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. The report shows $20.5 billion of direct spending by more than 297 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 322,600 jobs nationally; 269,900 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $42.5 billion.
As for the economics of visitor spending, the lodging sector had the highest direct effects, with $7 billion in economic output nationally. The restaurants sector had the second greatest effects, with $4.2 billion in economic output nationally.
For more information, go to www.nps.gov/state/ca/index.htm.
— Staff reports
