The Outdoor Industry Foundation has just released its fall 2006 survey results determining how much outdoor recreation contributes to the U.S. economy.
Outdoor recreation combined generates $730 billion to our economy. The report, which you can view here in pdf form, breaks down the major outdoor recreation fields for further scrutinization – biking, camping, fishing, hunting, paddling, snowsports, trail and wildlife viewing.
Hunting alone contributed a total of $34 billion from 13 million participants. There are 323,000 jobs directly related to our sport and we contribute $2.2 billion in tax revenue.
Hunters only make up about 13 million participants but they outspend all other categories in sales of related gear. As an example hunters spent nearly $6.9 billion in gear sales from about 13 million participants. If you compare that to the area with the highest number of participants, wildlife viewing, there were just over 66 million viewers who spent a total of $8.8 billion in gear sales. That translates into hunters outspending wildlife viewers nearly 4 to 1 when compared one to one.
Not to pick on wildlife viewers but they are the ones who often throw back into the faces of hunters that there are many more of them then there are of us. According to this study that is true but it now appears the wildlife viewers should start paying up.
According to the report, hunters and fishermen continue to be the leaders in revenue generated per participant.
Tom Remington
