Salt Lake City – Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne didn’t need a report to know the important role the outdoor recreation industry plays in America.
But the first-ever economic impact report released today at the annual Outdoor Retailer trade show in Salt Lake City provides policymakers and business leaders with “a necessary tool” for building healthy rural economies, protecting public lands and maybe stemming the country’s increasingly youthful slide into obesity, said the country’s new Secretary of the Interior.
“The report certainly gives us the empirical strength to what many of us already believe,” Kempthorne said in a press conference the Boulder-based Outdoor Industry Foundation’s Active Outdoor Recreation Economy Report. “The economic analysis provides a vivid identification of how dynamic this industry is.”
The peer-reviewed report, based on 14,000 individual surveys and 52,000 U.S. Census Bureau surveys quantified the impact of 130 million Americans who participated in biking, camping, paddlesports, snowsports, hiking, fishing, hunting and wildlife viewing last year.
Those Americans, according to the report by Florida firm Southwick Associates, spent an average of $61 on day trips, $115 on overnight trips and $185 a year on equipment. Overall, outdoor recreating Americans spend $289 billion a year.
The rippling economic impact of that spending totals $730 billion, or roughly 8 percent of the national economy. The impact generates $88 billion in national, state and local taxes. It sustains 6.5 million jobs. And the outdoor recreation spending is a primary vehicle for dispersing urban wealth into poorer rural communities across the country.
“So if you are concerned about the economic health of the country, get outside and have fun,” said Rob Southwick, the report’s author.
Ultimately the first-of-its-kind report will give the outdoor industry the muscle it needs in its support for the protection and preservation of public lands, the pedestal upon which the outdoor recreation industry is based, said Sally Jewell, CEO of industry powerhouse REI.
Kempthorne, an avid outdoorsman and Idaho’s former governor before taking the Interior helm in March, recalled a quote from a 4th grader in a book he recently read:
“I like to play inside better because that’s where the electrical outlets are at,” he said.
This report, Kempthorne said, goes beyond economics. Citing recent studies showing the rising healthcare costs for the physically inactive, the prevalence of adult-onset diabetes in kids as young as 7, and speculation that babies born today may face a shorter lifespan than their parents, Kempthorne said the report girds the country in its fight against inactivity.
“More and more we are becoming less and less active and we can do something about that,” he said. “If we partner up and harness these numbers with our passion and compassion, the horizon is unlimited for what we can accomplish together.”
Staff Writer Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-820-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
