By Pepper Fisher
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK – A new National Park Service report shows that 2.9 million visitors to Olympic National Park in 2023 spent almost $280 million in neighboring communities. That spending supported 3,000 jobs in the local area.
Olympic National Park Superintendent Sula Jacobs told the Port Angeles City Council that she’s thrilled with the numbers and compared then to years past.
“I was looking to try to understand where our visitation was highest. 2014, 15, 16, visitation was higher. And then, very curiously, in the late 90s, which I really have not figured out why, that was our highest visitation of three point, I think, six million. So, still, 2.9 puts us much higher than Rainier and the Cascades. In fact, you add both of them together and Olympics still has more visitation. I do look at that, because we’re super competitive in the Park Service. So I’m very happy this is being recorded.”
The 2023 National Park Visitor Spending Effects report finds that the lodging sector had the highest direct contributions with $9.9 billion in economic output and 89,200 jobs nationwide.
An interactive tool is available to explore visitor spending, jobs, labor income, and total economic contribution by sector for national, state and local economies. The interactive tool and report are available at nps.gov.
To learn more about national parks in Washington and how the Park Service works to help preserve local history, conserve the environment, and provide outdoor recreation, go to nps.gov/washington.
(NPS photo: Superintendent Sula Jacobs)