Yellowstone’s Economic Impacts Touted
A new National Park Service report for 2011 shows that the 3,394,326 visitors to Yellowstone National Park spent $333-million in communities surrounding the park. This spending supported 5,041 jobs in the local area. As in Grand Teton National Park,63% of the visitor spending supports jobs in lodging, food, and beverage service, followed by 17% in recreation and entertainment, 11% in other retail, 7% in transportation and fuel and 2% in wholesale and manufacturing. Still, despite Yellowstone being the larger and more familiar National Park, Grand Teton’s economic impact on surrounding communities eclipsed Yellowstone’s by $103-million.
