New data from the National Park Service show a growing impact on local economies as park tourism continues to increase since the pandemic.
In 2024 national parks across the country were visited by more than 330 million individuals who spent an estimated $29 billion in local gateway economies.
According to NPS, that spending helped support 340,000 jobs, generated $18.8 billion in labor income as well as $56.3 billion in economic output into the national economy.
In New York, which has 24 NPS managed sites, the economic impact generated by park visitors is roughly $877 million with more than half of that being spent on lodging and restaurants.
At Saratoga National Historical Park, a $6 million dollar project, funded by the Great American Outdoors Act, was completed last spring. It upgraded exhibits, signage and trailheads along the park’s 10-mile-long battlefield tour road.
It comes as the region prepares for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.
Program Manager for Interpretation and Visitor Experience at Saratoga National Historical Park Garrett Cloer says while the park exists to preserve the area’s history:
“Those stories draw people and people, of course, when they come here, they bring money. So, we’re really excited to be able to contribute to the local economy and we’re happy that our visitors are able to bring so many benefits to the area as they are coming here to learn and recreate, they’re often spending the weekend or spending the night and they’re buying food and gas and groceries and all that type of stuff,” said Cloer.
According to the NPS data, more than 116,000 visitors to Saratoga National Historical Park spent $8.2 million in surrounding communities.
Todd Shimkus is the President of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.
“You know when you think of our motto ‘health, history, horses, I think we’ve understood for a long-time history plays a significant role in boosting our local economy and certainly the national park being here. And the county deserves a ton of credit. The 250th anniversary celebration, the committee that’s working on that, they recognize that this is an opportunity for us to market this park and our history to the world to hopefully attract even more people. Because the folks that travel for history also tend to spend money,” said Shimkus.
