The National Park service recently released the 2014 economic impact reports which revealed that park visitors contributed over $1.3 Billion in economic impact in the Virginia economy. The total economic output was a $200 Million increase over last year (2013).
The new report provides a break down of economic contributions including visitor spending, labor income, value added and jobs supported. In 2014, Virginia park visitors spent an estimated $929.3 Million in local regions while visiting NPS lands. These expenditures supported a total of 14.8 Thousand jobs, $461.8 Million in labor income, and $736.9 Million in value added.
With over 4 major National Military Parks and over 5,200 acres it is to no surprise that the Fredericksburg Region would benefit from these visitors.
In 2014, the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Parks received over 873,000 visitors who spent nearly $49 Million while visiting. The contribution of visitor spending supported 690 jobs, $26.1 Million in labor income, and $40.8 Million in Value added, with a total economic output of $64.6 Million.
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Parks include Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvania and is known as “America’s Battleground”. As the National Park Service describes, “No place more vividly reflects the War’s tragic cost in all its forms. A town bombarded and looted. Farms large and small ruined. Refugees by the thousands forced into the countryside. More than 85,000 men wounded; 15,000 killed–most in graves unknown.”
