News Release
Wade
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Contact: Stephenie Wade
GULF BREEZE, Fla. – A new National Park Service report shows that 5.7 million visitors to Gulf Islands National Seashore spent $283,000,000 in 2022. That spending resulted in a cumulative benefit to the state economy of $1,458,700,000 in Florida and 610,000,000 in Mississippi.“Visitors in 2022 to Gulf Islands National Seashore returned $367,000,000 to the local economies and supported 3,660 jobs in local communities,” said Darrell Echols, Gulf Islands National Seashore superintendent. “Every park in the state offers unique experiences, from learning about history on a ferry to diverse outdoor recreational opportunities on a beach in the Gulf of Mexico. There’s something for everyone to see and enjoy.”
The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists at the National Park Service. The report shows $23.9 billion of direct spending by nearly 312 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 378,400 jobs nationally; 314,600 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $50.3 billion.
“Since 1916, the National Park Service has been entrusted with the care of our national parks. With the help of volunteers and partners, we safeguard these special places and share their stories with more than 300 million visitors every year. The impact of tourism on national parks is undeniable: bringing jobs and revenue to communities in every state in the country and making national parks an essential driver to the national economy,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams.
The report authors also produced 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) (nps.gov).
About Gulf Islands National Seashore: Created in 1971, the national seashore stretches 160 miles along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico in Florida and Mississippi and includes barrier islands, maritime forests, historic forts, bayous, and marine habitats. Visit us at www.nps.gov/guis, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
About the National Park Service: More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 425 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities.
Last updated: August 21, 2023