The National Parks Where Visitors Spend the Most Money, Mapped

While many attractions within the National Park Service’s domain charge either no fee or a modest ticket price, they can generate a substantial amount of money beyond admission. How? By luring visitors who then bolster the local economy surrounding the park.

1. The Top 10 National Parks By Guest Spending

The data hub USAFacts used information sourced from the NPS in 2023 [PDF] to assess which parks give the biggest financial boost to the communities that contain or sit adjacent to them. The NPS calls these “gateway regions,” a nod to their proximity to the parks and the need for tourists to pass through them while visiting. These communities are typically within a 60-mile radius of the parks.

All told, roughly $26.4 billion was generated by national park guests in 2023. Here’s where they spent the most:

The Top 10 National Parks By Guest Spending

It pays to have a business near Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Visitors spent a staggering $2.2 billion in 2023 alone, making it the only park where the sum exceeded $2 billion. The park—which crosses five counties in Tennessee and North Carolina—is also the most-visited, partially thanks to its appealing combination of free admission and easy accessibility to much of the U.S. population.

The Golden Gate Bridge Recreation Area (California) and the scenic, car-centric Blue Ridge Parkway (North Carolina and Virginia) each exceeded $1 billion ($1.5 and $1.4 billion, respectively). For the remainder of the top 10, visitors spent between $768.4 million and $559.4 million.

Money is pumped into the communities in a number of ways. Obviously, park admittance fees are a factor; this can also include on-site camping fees. But virtually all of the revenue reported here is derived from local businesses supplying gas, food, offsite camping, souvenirs, and other goods.

The biggest money maker by far is lodging. Local hotels and in-park accommodations drove 38 percent of all park-related spending in 2023.

The NPS placed overall economic output at $55.6 billion in 2023. That number includes ancillary spending on a business-to-business basis. A local business may, for example, need to repave a parking lot to accommodate visitors. Their hiring of a local paving company would contribute to an area’s overall economic output.

These numbers are large, but keep in mind they represent the 325 million visitors who flock to the parks annually. If you want to limit spending on your next trip, consider buying a park pass good for multiple sites, camping over booking a hotel, or even volunteering for the NPS. In addition to getting some civic duty in, you’ll also be spared the admission fee.

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