Night Skies: An Economic Value

Stargazing at Delicate Arch, Arches National Park.    NPS/Kat Connelly

With the popularity of park stargazing programs, ranger-led interpretive night sky walks, full moon hikes, and other such activities, the importance in protecting the dark night sky has become an economic value in the form of Astro-Tourism and night sky dependent recreation, which is a source of economic development for many communities in the U.S.

In 2022, 312 million park visitors spent an estimated $23.9 billion in local gateway regions while visiting National Park Service lands across the country. These expenditures supported a total of 378,000 jobs, $17.5 billion in labor income, $29 billion in value added, and $50.3 billion in economic output in the national economy (NPS Visitor Spending Stats).

Visitors that come to parks for astronomy programs are likely to spend the night and use local services for lodging, food, gasoline, equipment, and other expenditures, which factor into overall visitor spending. A recent study found that 61.8% of Utah’s state and national park visitors surveyed participated in some type of night sky recreation activity (J.W. Smith, et. al., 2023).

In 2019, Mitchell and Gallaway reported that the Colorado Plateau alone expects Astro-tourists to spend $5.8 billion over the next 10 years. The economic forecast for this region shows that Astro-tourism will generate $2.4 billion in higher wages and create 10,000 new jobs each year. The Colorado Plateau has some of the darkest skies in the U.S. with many certified International Dark Sky Parks.

The Park to Park in the Dark campaign is Nevada’s first astronomy route connecting two International Dark Sky Parks, Death Valley and Great Basin National Parks. It is touted as the Starry-est Route in America!

Protecting night skies can offer an economic advantage through the reduction in light pollution. Since light pollution often stems from the wasted component of outdoor lighting, eliminating the light that is inadvertent and excessive into the night sky will make outdoor lighting more energy efficient. In 1991, Hunter and Crawford found that making outdoor lighting more night sky friendly could potentially save $2 billion annually and perhaps as much as $10 billion annually by some estimates, which in today’s dollars would result in substantially more savings.

References

• Smith, J. W., Miller, Z. D., Miller, A. B., Lamborn, C. C., Beeco, A., & Anderson, S. (2023). Characteristics, management preferences, and spending profiles of night sky recreationists in Utah. Logan, UT: Institute of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism, Utah State University.

• Visitor Spending Effects - Economic Contributions of National Park Visitor Spending - Social Science (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov), 2021

• Mitchell, David, and Terrel Gallaway. "Dark Sky Tourism: Economic Impacts on the Colorado Plateau Economy, USA." Tourism Review (2019)

• Tim Hunter and David Crawford, "Economics of Light Pollution," Light Pollution, Radio Interference, and Space Debris, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 7, IAU Colloquium 112, 1991. D.L Crawford Ed.