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A National Park Service study released today says the 1.35 million visitors to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in 2011 spent $96.99 million in the communities surrounding the park. The study says the spending supported 1,177 jobs.
In 2012, an estimated 1.48 million people visited the park, up 9.7 percent from 2011.
The estimated economic impact of park visitors was part of a peer-reviewed spending analysis of parks nationwide by Michigan State University.
For 2011, the report shows $13 billion of direct spending nationwide by 279 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. That visitor spending had a $30 billion impact on the entire U.S. economy and supported 252,000 jobs nationwide, the study said.
