EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Kansas State Parks system properties provide a valuable outdoor recreational resource for residents and visitors to Kansas. The towns and cities around Kansas State Park sites benefit economically from state spending on improvements, as they enhance the tourism experience and build increased capacity and quality of life. Established amenity-rich locations further capture tourism spending that would otherwise leak out of the region and state. In many cases, the economic benefits generated from outdoor tourism are an integral component of the surrounding community and a key revenue source for businesses. The purpose of this study was to examine the economic impact of the Kansas State Parks on both the regional and state economies. The study used expenditure data from the parks and spending patterns of visitors to derive the financial contributions, which captures the market transaction side of the impact. Since it does not capture the full value associated with the state-wide natural amenities, the project also included qualitative elements from guests and vendors providing goods and services. This project emailed 39,156 qualified visitors who stayed at a park at least once between April 1 and September 11, 2020, at one of the twenty-eight locations within the Kansas State Park system. At a state-wide level, survey respondents had an average party size of 4, stayed 4.1 days, and spent about $510 per trip. The largest share of the trip cost was for the camping site or cabin, excluding major one-time purchases like an RV, kayak, or jet ski. Groceries, transportation, and recreation gear were the following three most significant expenditures. The total estimated spending by visitors in Kansas was 170.1 million dollars in 2020. Annual state-wide visitor traffic increased from 5.7 to 8.6 million between 2019 to 2020. The increased traffic accounted for all visitors and the number of days that they stayed within the park. The dramatic increase of 52 percent in visitor days was primarily in response to the global pandemic. This study used the annual average total visitor days of 6.8 million, which excluded 2020, to represent the impact; however, the report also analyzed the 2020 visitations. The 6.8 million visitors engaged in nature and family-related activities at Kansas State Parks support 5,058 jobs annually, equating to 132.1 million dollars in wages. The purchases of food, gasoline, tents, and other supplies heavily support the service and retail sectors of the economy, which accounted for 96 percent of the jobs impact. The industry sales associated with those jobs were estimated to be 287.4 million dollars annually. The impact across the state mainly varied due to the level of annualized day visitors. The top three state parks were El Dorado, Hillsdale, and Tuttle Creek. All three accounted for thirty-one percent of the total annual visitors and about thirty-three percent of the output impact on the state economy. Cheney, Milford, and Clinton, the following three largest state parks, all had a similar number of visitors and economic effects.
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