NPS Visitor Spending Effects Report 2024 | NPS Shutdown Memo
Judge rules against last minute effort to repurpose FEMA funds
I apologize for filling up your inbox but there as been a flurry of activity in advance of the shutdown.
The National Park Service has quietly released its Visitor Spending Effects report, which found in 2024, 332 million park visitors (a 2% increase over 2023) spent an estimated $29 billion in local gateway communities (a 10% increase over 2023) while visiting National Park Service lands across the country. These expenditures supported a total of 340,000 jobs generating $18.8 billion in labor income.
The report includes a nifty interactive tool that allows you to download the data by national, state, and park economies. In the three categories it also breaks out economic data by sector: camping, gas, groceries, hotels, recreation, restaurants, retail, and transportation.
The press release is available here.
The full report can be download here.
The interactive tool is available here.
While I am delighted to have this data in advance of the government shutdown, this is also important data to showcase the impact of tourism development and marketing.
Last this afternoon, NPS leadership distributed a NPS lapse memo to regional directors and associate directors the I thought tourism leaders would find informative, particularly the Visitor Services and Donations sections. Memo is attached.
For those of you tracking FEMA funding/reorganization, late this afternoon POLITICO reports a Judge orders Trump administration to preserve $233 million in FEMA grants it attempted to pull from blue states. The multi-state law suit was prompted by the Trump administration’s last minute effort to repurpose disaster relief funds before the end of the fiscal year.
This should be it for the day. More to come tomorrow. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the shutdown.