“We are glad to work alongside our business communities in helping create lifelong memories and traditions that bring people to our area year after year,” said Superintendent Cassius Cash. “While our gateway communities benefit from visitor spending, they also provide a critical role in shaping the overall impression of a visit to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.”

National park tourism is a significant driver in the national economy, with every dollar invested by American taxpayers in the National Park Service returning $10 to the economy. The figures come from a peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis completed by economists Catherine Cullinane Thomas and Egan Cornachione of the U.S. Geological Survey and Lynne Koontz of the National Park Service.

Numbers for the Smokies were down slightly compared to the figures for 2016, which showed 11.3 million visitors spending $942.7 million and supporting 14,700 jobs. However, they’re higher than the 2015 figures, which showed visitors spending $874 million in parkside communities. 

Overall in the Park Service, 330 million park visitors spent $18.2 billion in communities within 60 miles of a national park nationwide, supporting 306,000 jobs. More than 255,000 of these jobs were found in gateway communities. 

An interactive tool displaying results of the analysis is online at http://go.nps.gov/vse.