Yosemite Brought In Over Half Billion Dollars To Local Communities

Above, Half Dome. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The national parks had a banner year in 2016, due in part to the centennial celebration of the National Park Service. The big surge in visitors benefited their local communities.

The local economies surrounding Yosemite National Park were no exception.

My Mother Lode reported:

Yosemite, CA – A new National Park Service (NPS) report shows Yosemite brings more than half a billion dollars to nearby communities. 

As earlier reported here, Yosemite National Park already smashed its previous visitor record by 21 percent with 5,028,868 visitors coming through its gates in 2016. This reports looks at what that number means for the Gateway communities along the Highway 120, Highway 140, and Highway 41 corridors. It found that visitors to the park spent $520,629,100 in communities near the park, which supported 7883 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $686,339,500.

I visited Yosemite twice last year.

To read more, go here.