Community

Cuyahoga Valley National Park Report Finds $87 Million Economic Impact in 2016

Ideastream Public Media

Published April 25, 2017 at 8:55 PM EDT

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Park community engagement supervisor Pamela Barnes says that the National Park Service's "Find Your Park" campaign is partially responsible for the increased attendance.

A new report finds that the Cuyahoga Valley National Park had an economic impact of $87 million dollars and supported nearly a thousand local jobs in Northeast Ohio last year.

The report by the National Park Service shows that two and a half million visitors spent money in areas like dining and lodging.

That’s up 200,000 visitors from the year before.

The park’s community engagement supervisor Pamela Barnes says the increase is likely due to more millennials visiting national parks around the country.

“We had the ‘Find Your Park’ campaign for the National Park Service Centennial in 2016. We estimate that we reached 1 in 3 millennials and people of that age group are representing park visitation more and more.”

Barnes also says that out-of-town visitors are on the rise.