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Lynne Koontz

Publications and source records attributed to Lynne Koontz.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2022

2021 National park visitor spending effects: Economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation

The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports economic activity within park gateway communities. This report summarizes the annual economic contribution analysis that measures how NPS visitor spending cycles through local economies, generating business sales and supporting jobs and income. In 2021, the National Park System received over 297 million recreation visits (up 25% from 2020). Visitors to national parks spent an estimated $20.5 billion in local gateway regions (up 41% from 2020). The estimated contribution of this spending to the national economy was 322,600 jobs, $14.6 billion in labor income, $24.3 billion in value added, and $42.5 billion in economic output. The lodging sector saw the highest direct effects, with $7 billion in economic output directly contributed to this sector nationally. The restaurants sector saw the next greatest effects, with $4.2 billion in economic output directly contributed to this sector nationally. Results from the Visitor Spending Effects report series are available online via an interactive tool. Users can view year-by-year trend data and explore current year visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and economic output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. The interactive tool is available at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm.

Natural Resource Report↗
USGS2021

Great American Outdoors Act Legacy Restoration Fund for National Parks: Economic impacts of fiscal year 2021 funding

The Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 (GAOA), P.L. 116-152, established the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF) to address priority deferred maintenance projects on National Park Service (NPS) and other federal lands. For the NPS, the LRF equates to receiving a maximum of $1.33 billion per year for fiscal years 2021 through 2025. Funding of this magnitude provides the NPS with the opportunity to reduce the maintenance backlog, protect critical resources, expand recreational opportunities, and focus on long-term sustainable operations for the next century. Use of these funds on NPS projects will also support jobs and business activity in local economies across the Nation. The purpose of this analysis is to present preliminary estimates of the economic impacts associated with the NPS Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) projects supported by the LRF.

Report↗
USGS2021

Economic effects assessment approaches: US National Parks approach

This chapter discusses the data and methods used by the US National Park Service to estimate the economic effects of National Park visitor spending to local and regional economies. Topics covered include a summary of economic effects analyses, required data for analysis (visitor count data, trip characteristics and spending patterns, and regional economic multipliers) and how these data are combined to estimate visitor spending and economic effects. The chapter includes an applied example for Yosemite National Park and shows how park-level data can be combined to estimate and showcase state- and national-level visitor spending effects.

Book chapter↗
USGS2021

2020 National Park Visitor Spending Effects Economic Contributions to Local Communities, States,and the Nation

The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports economic activity within park gateway communities. This report summarizes the annual economic contribution analysis that measures how NPS visitor spending cycles through local economies, generating business sales and supporting jobs and income. In 2020, the National Park System received over 237 million recreation visits (down 28% from 2019). Visitors to national parks spent an estimated $14.5 billion in local gateway regions (down 31% from 2019). The estimated contribution of this spending to the national economy was 234,000 jobs, $9.7 billion in labor income, $16.7 billion in value added, and $28.6 billion in economic output. The lodging sector saw the highest direct effects, with $5 billion in economic output directly contributed to this sector nationally. The restaurants sector saw the next greatest effects, with $3 billion in economic output directly contributed to this sector nationally. Results from the Visitor Spending Effects report series are available online via an interactive tool. Users can view year-by-year trend data and explore current year visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and economic output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. The interactive tool is available at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm.

Natural Resource Report↗
USGS2020

2019 National park visitor spending effects: Economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation

The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports economic activity within park gateway communities. This report summarizes the annual economic contribution analysis that measures how NPS visitor spending cycles through local economies, generating business sales and supporting jobs and income. In 2019, the National Park System received over 327.5 million recreation visits. Visitors to national parks spent an estimated \$21 billion in local gateway regions. The contribution of this spending to the national economy was 340,500 jobs, \$14.1 billion in labor income, \$24.3 billion in value added, and \$41.7 billion in economic output. The lodging sector saw the highest direct effects, with \$7.1 billion in economic output directly contributed to this sector nationally. The restaurants sector saw the next greatest effects, with $4.2 billion in economic output directly contributed to this sector nationally. Results from the Visitor Spending Effects report series are available online via an interactive tool. Users can view year-by-year trend data and explore current year visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and economic output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. The interactive tool is available at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm.

Natural Resource Report↗
USGS2019

Estimating visitor use and economic contributions of National Park visitor spending

This chapter provides an overview of the National Park Service (NPS) methods for estimating visitor spending and calculating economic contributions of visitor spending in terms of jobs supported, wage and labor income, and total economic activity. The Visitor Spending Effects model combines visitor spending patterns and trip characteristic data with visitor use data to estimate total visitor spending. Economic contributions measure the total economic activity within a regional economy stemming from visitor spending, and include the effects of spending by both local visitors who live within gateway regions and non-local visitors who travel to NPS sites from outside of gateway regions. The Social Science Program collaborates with individual parks to develop visitor counting instructions that contain the procedures for measuring, compiling, and recording required visitor use data. Visitor surveys are used to collect the essential visitor spending and trip characteristic data necessary for developing spending profiles to represent distinct visitor spending patterns for each park.

Book chapter↗
USGS2019

National Park Service socioeconomic monitoring pilot survey: Visitor spending analysis

The National Park Service (NPS) is in the process of establishing a formal socioeconomic monitoring (SEM) program that will provide a standard visitor survey instrument and a long-term, systematic sampling design for in-park visitor surveys. The development of the pilot SEM survey provided the opportunity to add to the set of available visitor spending profiles for use in the NPS Visitor Spending Effects analysis and enabled the exploration of improved visitor spending estimation methodologies. Fourteen park units were selected for SEM pilot visitor surveys to represent a variety of park unit types (i.e., National Parks, National Recreation Areas, National Historic Parks, etc.), activities, settings (i.e., urban, rural, seashore, parkway, etc.), and difficulty of survey administration (i.e., highly controlled entrances vs. dispersed access). This report describes the methods developed to estimate visitor spending using the SEM pilot surveys and provides visitor spending profiles for the 14 pilot parks. The experiences gained through the pilot effort provide useful feedback for learning and improving future survey efforts.

Natural Resource Report↗
USGS2018

2017 National Park visitor spending effects : Economic contributions to local communities, states, and the Nation

The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports a considerable amount of economic activity within park gateway communities. This economic effects analysis measures how NPS visitor spending cycles through local economies, generating business sales and supporting jobs and income. In 2017, the National Park System received an estimated 331 million recreation visits. Visitors to National Parks spent an estimated \$18.2 billion in local gateway regions (defined as communities within 60 miles of a park). The contribution of this spending to the national economy was 306 thousand jobs, \$11.9 billion in labor income, \$20.3 billion in value added, and \$35.8 billion in economic output. The lodging sector saw the highest direct contributions with \$5.5 billion in economic output directly contributed to local gateway economies nationally. The sector with the next greatest direct contributions was the restaurants and bars sector, with \$3.7 billion in economic output directly contributed to local gateway economies nationally. Results from the Visitor Spending Effects report series are available online via an interactive tool. Users can view year-by-year trend data and explore current year visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and economic output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. This interactive tool is available at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm.

Natural Resource Technical Report↗
USGS2017

Visitor spending effects: assessing and showcasing America's investment in national parks

This paper provides an overview of the evolution, future, and global applicability of the U.S. National Park Service's (NPS) visitor spending effects framework and discusses the methods used to effectively communicate the economic return on investment in America's national parks. The 417 parks represent many of America's most iconic destinations: in 2016, they received a record 331 million visits. Competing federal budgetary demands necessitate that, in addition to meeting their mission to preserve unimpaired natural and cultural resources for the enjoyment of the people, parks also assess and showcase their contributions to the economic vitality of their regions and the nation. Key approaches explained include the original Money Generation Model (MGM) from 1990, MGM2 used from 2001, and the visitor spending effects model which replaced MGM2 in 2012. Detailed discussion explains the NPS's visitor use statistics system, the formal program for collecting, compiling, and reporting visitor use data. The NPS is now establishing a formal socioeconomic monitoring (SEM) program to provide a standard visitor survey instrument and a long-term, systematic sampling design for in-park visitor surveys. The pilot SEM survey is discussed, along with the need for international standardization of research methods.

Journal of Sustainable Tourism↗
USGS2017

2016 National Park visitor spending effects: Economic contributions to local communities, states, and the Nation

The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports a considerable amount of economic activity within park gateway communities. This economic effects analysis measures how NPS visitor spending cycles through local economies, generating business sales and supporting jobs and income. In 2016, the National Park System received an estimated 330,971,689 recreation visits. Visitors to National Parks spent an estimated \$18.4 billion in local gateway regions (defined as communities within 60 miles of a park). The contribution of this spending to the national economy was 318 thousand jobs, \$12.0 billion in labor income, \$19.9 billion in value added, and \$34.9 billion in economic output. The lodging sector saw the highest direct contributions with \$5.7 billion in economic output directly contributed to local gateway economies nationally. The sector with the next greatest direct contributions was the restaurants and bars sector, with \$3.7 billion in economic output directly contributed to local gateway economies nationally.Results from the Visitor Spending Effects report series are available online via an interactive tool. Users can view year-by-year trend data and explore current year visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and economic output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. This interactive tool is available at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm.

Natural Resource Report↗
USGS2016

2015 National Park visitor spending effects: Economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation

The National Park Service (NPS) manages the Nation’s most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the Nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports a considerable amount of economic activity within park gateway communities. This economic effects analysis measures how NPS visitor spending cycles through local economies, generating business sales and supporting jobs and income. In 2015, the National Park System received over 307.2 million recreation visits. NPS visitors spent \$16.9 billion in local gateway regions (defined as communities within 60 miles of a park). The contribution of this spending to the national economy was 295 thousand jobs, \$11.1 billion in labor income, \$18.4 billion in value added, and \$32.0 billion in economic output. The lodging sector saw the highest direct contributions with \$5.2 billion in economic output directly contributed to local gateway economies nationally. The sector with the next greatest direct contributions was the restaurants and bar sector, with \$3.4 billion in economic output directly contributed to local gateway economies nationally. Results from the Visitor Spending Effects report series are available online via an interactive tool. Users can view year-by-year trend data and explore current year visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and economic output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. This interactive tool is available at http://go.nps.gov/vse.

Natural Resource Report↗
USGS2015

2014 National Park visitor spending effects: economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation

The National Park System covers more than 84 million acres and is comprised of more than 401 sites across the Nation. These lands managed by the National Park Service (NPS) serve as recreational destinations for visitors from across the Nation and around the world. On vacations or on day trips, NPS visitors spend time and money in the gateway communities surrounding NPS sites. Spending by NPS visitors generates and supports a considerable amount of economic activity within park gateway economies. The NPS has been measuring and reporting visitor spending and economic effects for the past 25 years. The 2012 analysis marked a major revision to the NPS visitor spending effects analyses, with the development of the Visitor Spending Effects model (VSE model) which replaced the previous Money Generation Model (see Cullinane Thomas et al. (2014) for a description of how the VSE model differs from the previous model). This report provides updated VSE estimates associated with 2014 NPS visitation. System-wide visitation estimates in 2014 increased by 7% (or 19.2 million visits) compared to 2013 (Ziesler, 2015). Visitation in 2014 rebounded from a 2013 decline that included a 16-day government shutdown and many park closures for repairs after Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast in late 2012. The re-opening of the Washington Monument, some 21 months after it was rocked by an earthquake and repaired, also added to 2014 visitation numbers. Additionally, several national parks saw record-breaking visitation in 2014, including Joshua Tree, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton and Glacier national parks. This report begins by presenting an overview of economic effects analyses, followed by details about the data and methods used for this analysis and 2014 model updates. Estimates of NPS visitor spending in 2014 and resulting economic effects at the local, state, regional, and national levels are then presented. The report concludes with a description of current data limitations. Park-level spending and economic effects estimates are included in the appendix. New this year, results from the Visitor Spending Effects report series are available online via an interactive tool. Users can explore current year visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. This interactive tool is available via the NPS Social Science Program webpage at http://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/economics.cfm.

Natural Resource Report↗
USGS2014

2012 National Park visitor spending effects: economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation

The National Park Service (NPS) manages the nation's most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors from across the nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports a considerable amount of economic activity within park gateway communities. This economic effects analysis measures how NPS visitor spending cycles through local economies, generating business sales and supporting jobs and income. In 2012, the National Park System received over 282 million recreation visits. NPS visitors spent $14.7 billion in local gateway regions (defined as communities within 60 miles of a park). The contribution of this spending to the national economy was 243 thousand jobs, $9.3 billion in labor income, $15.8 billion in value added, and $26.8 billion in output. The lodging sector saw the highest direct contributions with more than 40 thousand jobs and $4.5 billion in output directly contributed to local gateway economies nationally. The sector with the next greatest direct contributions was restaurants and bars, with 51 thousand jobs and $3 billion in output directly contributed to local gateway economies nationally. This 2012 analysis marks a major revision to the NPS visitor spending effects analyses, with the development of a new visitor spending effects model (VSE model) that replaces the former Money Generation Model (MGM2). Many of the hallmarks and processes of the MGM2 model are preserved in the new VSE model, but the new model makes significant strides in improving the accuracy and transparency of the analysis. Because of this change from the MGM2 model to the VSE model, estimates from this year’s analysis are not directly comparable to previous analyses.

Natural Resource Report↗
USGS2014

2013 National Park visitor spending effects: economic contributions to local communities, states, and the nation

The National Park Service (NPS) manages the nation's most iconic destinations that attract millions of visitors form across the nation and around the world. Trip-related spending by NPS visitors generates and supports a considerable amount of economic activity within park gateway communities. This economic effects analysis measures how NPS visitor spending cycles through local economies, generating business sales and supporting jobs and income. In 2013, the National Park System received over 273 million recreation visits. NPS visitors spent $14.6 billion in local gateway regions (defined as communities within 60 miles of a park). The contribution of this spending to the national economy was 238 thousand jobs, $9.2 billion in labor income, $15.6 billion in value added, and $26.5 billion in output. The lodging sector saw the highest direct contributions with 38 thousand jobs and $4.4 billion in output directly contributed to local gateway economies nationally. The sector with the next greatest direct contributions was restaurants and bats, with 50 thousand jobs and $2.0 billion in output directly contributed to local gateway economies nationally. While it is typical for visitation levels to fluctuate across the park units each year, system-wide visitation estimates in 2013 declines by 3.2% (or 9.1 million visits) compared ro 2012 (Street, 2014). Although many factors can influence park visitsation, two events signficiantly contrubuterd to this decline: the Government shutdown in October 2013, and lonf-term park closures related to the lasting effects of Hurrican Sandt from October 2012 through July 2013.

Natural Resource Report↗
USGS2013

Regional economic impacts of current and proposed management alternatives for Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge

The National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 requires all units of the National Wildlife Refuge System to be managed under a Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP). The CCP must describe the desired future conditions of a refuge and provide long-range guidance and management direction to achieve refuge purposes. Charles M. Russell (CMR) National Wildlife Refuge, located in north-central Montana, is in the process of developing a range of management goals, objectives, and strategies for the CCP. The CCP for the Refuge must contain an analysis of expected effects associated with current and proposed refuge-management strategies. For refuge CCP planning, an economic analysis provides a means of estimating how current management (No Action Alternative) and proposed management activities (Alternatives) affect the local economy. This type of analysis provides two critical pieces of information: (1) it illustrates a refuge’s contribution to the local community; and (2) it can help in determining whether economic effects are or are not a real concern in choosing among management alternatives. It is important to note that the economic value of a refuge encompasses more than just the impacts on the regional economy. Refuges also provide substantial nonmarket values (values for items not exchanged in established markets) such as maintaining endangered species, preserving wetlands, educating future generations, and adding stability to the ecosystem (Carver and Caudill, 2007). However, quantifying these types of nonmarket values is beyond the scope of this study. This report first presents a description of the local community and economy near the Refuge. Next, the methods used to conduct a regional economic impact analysis are described. An analysis of the final CCP management strategies that could affect stakeholders and residents and the local economy is then presented. The refuge management activities of economic concern in this analysis are: • Refuge purchases of goods and services within the local community; • Refuge personnel salary spending; • Grazing operations; • Spending in the local community by refuge visitors; and • Revenues generated from Refuge Revenue Sharing.

Montana↗