Death Valley tourists giving economy of Pahrump a bump

Officials at Death Valley National Park reported that visitors spent $104 million in surrounding Nevada and California communities last year, according to a new National Park Service report.

The ripple effects of that direct spending boosted the local economy by $135 million and supported 1,228 jobs.

Roughly 1 million people visited the park in 2021, which was about two-thirds the park’s pre-COVID visitation of 1.7 million.

Additionally, the $104 million in visitor spending in 2021 was about two-thirds of the park’s all-time high of $147 million in 2019.

“I’m excited that protecting this special desert is also good business,” said Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds. “Each year Congress appropriates about $10 million in taxpayer dollars to operate and protect Death Valley National Park, and then visitors spend over ten times that amount in the local economy.”

The peer-reviewed visitor spending analysis was conducted by economists at the National Park Service and the U.S. Geological Survey. An interactive summary and the full report are available at nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.htm.

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes