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- Utah's national parks saw 11 million visitors in 2023, a 5% increase.
- Federal funding for Utah's parks totaled $48.9 million in 2023, plus $143 million since 2021.
- Park visitors spent $1.9 billion, creating a $3 billion economic impact in Utah.
SALT LAKE CITY — More than 11 million people visited Utah's "Mighty Five" national parks last year, a 5% increase over the previous year.
In fact, national park visitation in the state grew 100% between 2005 and 2024. At the same time, National Park Service jobs grew 8%, according to a new report from the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
As of 2024, more than 1,200 federal employees worked in tourism-related jobs in Utah, including 658 in leisure and hospitality (including national parks and recreation jobs) and 605 at the Federal Aviation Administration, per the report.
In addition to Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park and Zion National Park, Utah is home to 13 other national monuments, national recreation and geologic areas and national historic places.
"President Theodore Roosevelt established Utah's first national monument, Natural Bridges, in 1908," Jennifer Leaver, Gardner senior tourism analyst, said in the report. "Since then, the state's travel and tourism industry has boomed, with its 18 national parks and places receiving upward of 16 million combined visitors annually."
Park visitors spent $1.9 billion in Utah, generating a $3 billion economic impact in the state in 2023, according to the National Parks Service. Utah ranked third for national park visitor spending behind California and North Carolina.
How much the feds put into Utah national parks
All 18 parks in Utah are staffed by federal employees and receive federal funding.
The federal government allocated $48.9 million in ongoing funds to Utah's parks in 2023 and over $143 million in Great American Outdoor Act National Parks and Legacy Restoration Funds since 2021, according to the report. The state's parks receive a combination of U.S. Department of the Interior and U.S. Department of Transportation ongoing and one-time funds annually.
The money includes $103.2 million for national park projects, $24.6 million for 13 Bureau of Land management projects, and $15.5 million for one Forest Service Project.
Utah's national parks and places comprise 5.6 million acres of land in the state. The National Parks Service manages all of them except for Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante and Jurassic national monuments and Ashley Karst and Flaming Gorge national recreation areas.
Southwestern, southeastern, and northwestern Utah had the highest number of federal leisure and hospitality jobs in 2024, excluding FAA jobs, which are concentrated in Salt Lake County, according to the report. Garfield, Wayne, and Grand counties had the largest shares of federal leisure and hospitality jobs to total jobs.
Travel and transportation funding
Like the national parks and places, the state's airports also receive federal funding and employ federal workers. FAA jobs include air traffic controllers, aviation safety inspectors, aviation engineers and technical specialists.
The U.S. Department of Transportation allocated $50.5 million in its Airport Improvement Program grant funds to the Salt Lake City International Airport and six regional and 11 municipal airports in 2024, per the report. The Salt Lake airport saw a record 28.3 million passengers last year.
The Salt Lake airport received most of that funding ($34.8 million), while Utah's regional and municipal airports received $4.9 and $10.8 million, respectively.
Utah's public transportation systems, including airports, roads, bridges, mass transit, and electric vehicle charging stations, have also received hundreds of millions of additional federal grant dollars in recent years.
The report is the Gardner Institute's sixth in a series on state and federal economic connections.
