A new National Park Service report revealed that over 1.3 million people visited Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park in 2021 and spent an estimated $117 million in local communities.  These funds helped support 1,220 jobs and contributed $154 million to Hawaiʻi Island.

The 2021 National Park Visitor Spending Effects report is an annual peer-reviewed economics report prepared by economists from the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Park Service. It includes information by parks and by states on visitor spending, the number of jobs supported by visitor spending and other statistics.

Across the nation, visitor spending in communities near national parks resulted in a $42.5 billion benefit to the nation’s economy and supported 322,600 mostly local jobs, according to the report.

The eight national park units in Hawaiʻi welcomed 3.9 million visitors in 2021 who spent an estimated $438 million in local gateway communities. This spending supported a total of 4,610 jobs, and had a cumulative benefit to the state of Hawaiʻi of $607 million.

The current eruption from Kīlauea volcano continues to attract thousands of visitors each day