Tourism to national park contributes $2 billion to local economy
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A new National Park Service report shows that approximately 12.2 million visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2024 spent more than $2 billion in communities near the park. That spending had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of more than $2.8 billion.
The National Park Service report, 2024 National Park Visitor Spending Effects, finds that visitors spent $29 billion in communities near national parks. This spending provided $18.8 billion in labor income and $56.3 in economic output to the U.S. economy. The lodging sector had the highest direct contributions, with $11.1 billion in economic output. Restaurants received the next greatest direct contributions, with $5.7 billion in economic output.
An interactive tool is available to explore visitor spending, labor income and total economic contribution by sector for national, state and local economies. Users can also view year-by-year trend data. The interactive tool and report are available on the NPS website.
