More than 2M visited Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park

Eruptions helped draw more than 2 million visitors to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park in 2017, according to a new National Park Service report.

Those 2,016,702 visitors to the park spent $166 million in communities near the park, according to the report, which supported 2,020 local jobs, and brought a cumulative benefit of $222.4 million to the local economy.

“Visitation continues to rise at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, and visitors from all over the world continue to support our local communities when they explore Kilauea and Mauna Loa by spending their money on lodging, dining, shopping, and more,” said park superintendent Cindy Orlando in a news release. “It’s interesting to compare the eruptive patterns of our volcanoes, and align that to increased visitation. There’s definitely a parallel.”

Kilauea continues to erupt from two locations — in the remote East Rift Zone flank and from Halema‘uma‘u, a vent within the summit crater. This week, lava rose to the edge of the vent rim, spilling out onto the crater floor several times, which drew thousands of visitors each day.

Since the summit eruption began in 2008, visitation to the park has jumped by 58 percent.

Economists Catherine Cullinane Thomas of the U.S. Geological Survey and Lynne Koontz of NPS conducted the peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis, which showed $18.2 billion of direct spending by more than 330 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park supported 306,000 jobs nationally. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $35.8 billion.

Most park visitor spending was for lodging/camping (32.9 percent), followed by food and beverages (27.5 percent), gas and oil (12.1 percent), souvenirs and other expenses (10.1 percent), admissions and fees (10.0 percent) and local transportation (7.5 percent).

The full report, plus year-by-year trends, are available at this NPS link.