National parks have rebounded from 2020鈥檚 shutdowns, but not all of them made it back to pre-pandemic levels last year.
Montana-based nonprofit research group Headwaters Economics compiles National Park Service data annually, and this week it showing that NPS units 鈥� which can include national monuments, forts, historical locations, parks and preserves 鈥� saw a big surge in visitors from 2020 to 2021.
With visitors came spending. From 2020 to 2021, the amount they spent increased 34% to $20.4 billion nationwide. But that鈥檚 still below 2019's total of $22.2 billion.
Some individual parks also didn鈥檛 make it back to pre-pandemic visitor or spending levels last year, like Rocky Mountain National Park.
Meanwhile, several other national parks exceeded all previous records, including Arches, Grand Teton and Zion.
鈥淎bout 15% of the park units across the whole country have actually seen record visitation in 2021,鈥� said Megan Lawson, an economist for Headwaters Economics.
鈥淭he trends that were happening before the pandemic for the most part are just continuing. So if visitation was going up before, it鈥檚 likely still increasing.鈥�
Numbers for this year aren鈥檛 available yet, but early data shows Yellowstone National Park鈥檚 visitorship in response to flooding and closures there.
NPS units in Utah reported the highest levels of visitor spending in the Mountain West last year, at $1.6 billion. Idaho had the lowest level in the region at $37 million.
Lawson said these numbers demonstrate a larger point: the economic potential in preserving public lands.
鈥淚 think national parks are a great illustration of the power that our public lands have to support nearby communities and help to diversify economies,鈥� she said.
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