{"id":8103,"date":"2012-06-11T12:30:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-11T18:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=8103"},"modified":"2012-06-12T11:27:25","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T17:27:25","slug":"outdoor-recreation-an-overlooked-economic-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/06\/11\/outdoor-recreation-an-overlooked-economic-giant\/","title":{"rendered":"Outdoor Recreation An “Overlooked Economic Giant”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Robyn Beck \/ AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>

The pull of the great outdoors generates billions for the economy, according to a recent report.<\/p><\/div>\n

Americans spent far more on outdoor recreation last year than they did on pharmaceuticals.\u00a0 That’s one finding of a report released this weekend<\/a> that highlights the economic impact of outdoor recreation nationally and in the West.<\/p>\n

U.S. spending on outdoor recreation exceeded $645 billion last year, the report says.\u00a0 By comparison, spending on pharmaceuticals totaled $331 billion, and spending on motor vehicles and parts totaled $340 billion.<\/p>\n

Of that $645 billion total, 40 percent of the spending — more than $255 billion — was in Western states.\u00a0 It generated more than $15 billion in state and local tax revenue for the region, the report says, and 2.3 million jobs.<\/p>\n

How is that calculated, and what’s included in all of that spending?<\/p>\n

Since the report is a collaboration between the Outdoor Industry Association and the Western Governors’ Association, among others, it takes a broad view of the industry’s economic impact.\u00a0 As the report says, this isn’t just about the cost of a sleeping bag and campsite fees.\u00a0 It “includes the design, development, marketing and manufacturing of gear \u2013 such as hiking boots, rifles, fishing rods, water skis, camping gear, off-highway vehicles and more \u2013 as well as the expenditures for going on a trip to use that equipment \u2013 such as gas, lodging, hunting or fishing guides, and park passes.”<\/p>\n

The Idaho Division of Tourism<\/a> doesn’t track the economic impact of outdoor recreation in the state — specific studies of that sort are cost-prohibitive, Administrator Karen Ballard says.\u00a0 That said, a 2008 study<\/a> of Idaho tourism shows that most visits to Idaho that year were for leisure, and spending on general recreation totaled more than $350 million.<\/p>\n

The information released at the Western Governors’ Association meeting is a summary report.\u00a0 The full report is due out June 20<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Americans spent far more on outdoor recreation last year than they did on pharmaceuticals.\u00a0 That’s one finding of a report released this weekend that highlights the economic impact of outdoor recreation nationally and in the West. U.S. spending on outdoor recreation exceeded $645 billion last year, the report says.\u00a0 By comparison, spending on pharmaceuticals totaled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":8107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[68,51,18],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8103"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8155,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8103\/revisions\/8155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}