Wildlife Watching

I subscribe to an email publication entitled Green Lodging News. The publisher pulls together a variety of “green” topics and provides them to those who have subscribed to his newsletter as well as on his website. The weekly newsletter arrives each Monday morning. Some weeks I get a lot of information out of the newsletter, others not so much. This is largely due to the expanse of his market. He is pulling information together for everyone in the lodging industry. Not just little guys like us.

However I found today’s newsletter very interesting. He highlighted a study entitled

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, "Wildlife Watching in the U.S.: The Economic Impacts on National and State Economies in 2006”. You can download the study from a link on his

website

. The information included in the study was fascinating. It is one of those things that you have a gut feel that there are “lots” of people out there who are interested in observing nature and wildlife, but when you can get concrete numbers it makes it all the more fascinating. Here are a few statistics from the report:

• 71 Million people in the United States of America participated in some form of wildlife watching in 2006, which equates to roughly one out of three Americans 16 years of age and older.

• This 71 million wildlife-watching participants is more than four times greater than the attendance of all National League Football teams during the 2006 season.

• Wildlife-related expenditures in 2006 were $45.7 billion.
  Expenditures on wildlife watching are equivalent to the amount of revenue from all spectator sports (football, baseball, and other sports), all amusement parks and arcades, casinos (except casino hotels), bowling centers, and skiing facilities.

• Expenditures rippled through the economy generating $122.6 billion in total industry output and 1,063,482 jobs. The more than one million jobs supported by wildlife watchers are almost three times the number of people who work for United Parcel Service in the U.S.
  $9.3 billion in federal tax revenue and $8.9 billion in state tax revenue
  were generated from these activities.

The summary of the study is as follows:

“

Wildlife-watching in the U.S. has significant economic impacts at the local, regional, state, and national levels.

In 2006 it generated $122.6 billion in economic output, 1.1 million jobs and $18.2 billion in state, local, and federal tax revenues. Wildlife watching’s continued popularity gives evidence to the importance that people attach to diverse, accessible and robust fish and wildlife populations. The magnitude of its economic impacts prove that wildlife watching is a major force, driving billions in spending around the country. These economic impacts can be the life-blood of a local economy. Rural areas can attract thousands of wildlife watchers each year, generating millions of dollars.”

Now, how to translate the impact of this information for other locales...