A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows that in the year 2022, 1.6 million Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park visitors spent $149 million in communities near the park. This spending supported 1,500 jobs in the local area and $195 million in economic output in local gateway economies surrounding the park.
As for the economics of visitor spending, the lodging sector had the highest direct effects, with $9 billion in economic output nationally. The restaurants sector had the second greatest effects, with $4.6 billion in economic output nationally.
Report authors 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 Program webpage: Visitor Spending Effects – Economic Contributions of National Park Visitor Spending – Social Science (U.S. National Park Service).
Photo: Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park