Recreation by the Numbers: Federal Visitation and Economic Data

How are recreation visits and the associated economic impacts of those visits calculated?  The numbers and dollars are key to public land managers and decision makers.  Please join the Office of Policy Analysis on September 11 for a panel discussion describing recent efforts related to Federal recreation data. Panelists will discuss how visitation data to Federal lands is collected and evaluated, describe efforts to develop new statistics on the contribution of the outdoor recreation industry to the National economy, and the Recreation Information Database (RIDB) and its potential uses. For more information, go to:

Report – Estimating Recreational Visitation to Federally-Managed Lands: 

Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account: 

RIDB data: 

Panelists:        

• Tina Highfill – Economist, Bureau of Economic Analysis
• Sarah Cline – Economist, Office of Policy Analysis, Department of the Interior
• Rick DeLappe – Recreation One-Stop Program Manager, National Park Service
• Christian Crowley – Economist, Office of Policy Analysis, Department of the Interior