Advertisement
Spending, tourism and jobs up about 20 percent at Hoover site
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · June 22, 2017


Tourism, spending and jobs supported by tourists jumped about 20 percent in all three categories, according to a recent report on the Hoover National Historic Site.


The National Park Service in April released its annual report on the economic impact of the Hoover site on an area that includes West Branch and everything within 60 miles. The report states that more than 152,000 tourists visited the site, spent more than $8.9 million and supported 145 jobs.

Of the $8.9 million total, $3.7 million went toward labor income.

Visitors rose 20 percent over the 127,000 in 2015, spending rose 22 percent over the $7.3 million spent the previous year, and the number of jobs supported rose 19 percent over 122 the year before.

The report states that the $8.9 million which went toward supporting 145 jobs had a “cumulative benefit” of $11.4 million on the local economy.

Hoover Site Superintendent Pete Swisher credited the NPS Centennial in 2016 and its corresponding Find Your Park campaign for boosting the numbers.

“Our numbers are trending high,” he said. “We did a lot of advertising and additional sponsorship -- we got the word out.”

The NPS Centennial targeted advertising to millennials, which appeared to work, he said.

“The connection was made,” Swisher said. “It drove visitation up. We knew we were busy.”

The NPS report shows that, nationwide, the 417 parks counted nearly 331 million visitors spending $18.4 billion in all of the 60-mile regions. That is up by 23.7 million visitors, or 7.7 percent, in 2015 and $1.5 billion, or 8.9 percent.

Here’s how tourists nationwide spent their money:

• Hotels, motels and bed & breakfasts: 31.2 percent

• Restaurants and bars: 20.3 percent

• Gas and oil: 11.7 percent

• Admission and fees: 10.2 percent

• Souvenirs and other expenses: 9.7 percent

• Local transportation: 7.4 percent

• Groceries and takeout food: 6.9 percent

• Camping fees: 2.5 percent

Iowa’s other national park, Effigy Mounds National Monument, counted 77,000 visitors spending $4.9 million and supporting 82 jobs.

Together, Hoover Park and Effigy Mounds generated nearly 230,000 tourists who spent $13.8 million and supported 229 jobs, read the report.

Swisher notes that the park budget is about $1.3 million, so “for every $1 invested by the taxpayer, we see a $10-plus return to the (local) economy.”

The park superintendent said the report “looks through a different lens” and shows a deeper impact than just what he can see in West Branch.

“I’m fascinated by the report … because it not only looks at jobs at the local restaurant … but it looks at the supply end. Someone has to provide food to the restaurants.”

Swisher said his staff tracks participation in programs, like the summer tours of downtown West Branch and prairie walks, and continues “tweaking” those programs “to try to generate more interest.”

One of the programs that generates a good amount of interest is the Artist-In-Residence program, he said, which brings in poets, photographers, painters, etc. to capture their interpretation of Hoover and his hometowns. The program stalled for a couple of years for budget reasons.

“People really enjoy that,” he said.

Last year’s ham radio operator visit, Lift Every Voice theatrical production and Every Fourth Grader In The Park campaign all contributed, too, he said. Further, with city support of the blacksmithing shop -- which Swisher said “connects kids to the time period (1880s)” -- draws more visitors as well.

“That was the goal -- awareness,” the superintendent said of the Find Your Park campaign, which kicked off with ads during the Rose Bowl.

Last year’s numbers were “steady” throughout the year, but the Hoover Park has not seen family units like they have since the 1970s and 1980s.

“Our goal was to reach out to a new generation, and they responded pretty well,” Swisher said.

He notes that many visitors who stop at the park also stop in the Hoover Library-Museum, and vice versa.

“If we have a good year, the Hoover Library does, too,” he said.

The 60-mile radius, according to the 2016 National Park Visitor Spending Effects report, means that the researchers look at figures in any county that falls entirely or partially in that circle. That 60 miles encompasses the entire Cedar Rapids-Iowa City corridor, the Quad Cities and Mt. Pleasant. And though the radius just falls short of reaching Galesburg, Ill., Tama, Ottumwa and Burlington, the economic data from all the counties in which those cities reside is included.

The report states that this method of accounting for larger counties may mean those areas are “not intrinsically linked” yet “efforts are underway to improve local gateway region definitions.”

The study conducts on-site interviews with tourists at select parks to get a measurement of visitor spending patterns, visitation estimates and regional economic multipliers to create a visitor spending effects model and, from that, determine visitor spending and economic contributions.

The last time the NPS conducted an on-site survey of tourists was 2008, Swisher said.