News Release

Recent Study Shows Cape Lookout National Seashore’s Sustained Economic Benefit to Local Communities

Date: August 22, 2023
Contact: Nate Toering, 252-838-8909

HARKERS ISLAND, NC – A new National Park Service report shows that 542,000 visitors to Cape Lookout National Seashore in 2022 spent $26,800,000 in communities near the park. The spending supported 343 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $29,600,000.

“From 2012 through 2020, Cape Lookout National Seashore received an average of about 437,000 annual visitors. However, in 2021, we had over 560,000 visitors – an increase of about 28% over that previous average,” said Cape Lookout’s Chief of Interpretation & Education, Nate Toering. “Initially, I thought this increase in visitation may have been a “post-COVID” phenomenon. However, these recently published numbers indicate that this increased visitation and public spending may be here to stay. With over 542,000 visitors, 2022 proved to be well above the previous ten-year average and in line with what we saw in 2021. This increase has a direct impact on local economies. Over the last two years, we’ve seen about a $7,000,000 increase in annual visitor spending when compared to the previous decade. Our visitors find serenity on the pristine, undeveloped beaches of Cape Lookout National Seashore. These recent studies show that they’re not afraid to open their wallets in the surrounding communities to get there.”

The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists at the National Park Service. The report looked at NPS units across the country and shows $23.9 billion of direct spending by nearly 312 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 378,400 jobs nationally; 314,600 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $50.3 billion.

“Since 1916, the National Park Service has been entrusted with the care of our national parks. With the help of volunteers and partners, we safeguard these special places and share their stories with more than 300 million visitors every year. The impact of tourism to national parks is undeniable: bringing jobs and revenue to communities in every state in the country and making national parks an essential driver to the national economy,” said National Park Service Director Chuck Sams.

The authors of this report also produce an interactive tool that enables users to explore visitor spending, jobs, labor income, value added, and output effects by sector for national, state, and local economies. Users can also view year-by-year trend data.

The interactive tool and report are available at the NPS Social Science Program webpage: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm