Economic Impact of Tourism in the Poconos
- afuturetogether
- Apr 29, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 29, 2021
The number of visitors increased by 550,000 to reach 27.9 million in 2018.
Visitation has grown by 3.3 million since 2014, an overall 13% growth in five years.
Visitor spending reached $3.3 $2,500 billion, growing $125 million.
Over the past five years, visitor spending has increased by $850 million – 35% higher than in 2014.
Visitation growth moderated in 2018, increasing by 550,000 million trips—2.0% growth. Visitation has averaged 2.5% over the past five years.
Visitor spending increased $125 million, growth of 3.9%, to reach $3.3 billion.
Lodging and food & beverage spending capture 57 cents of each visitor dollar.
Spending grew 3.9% in 2018. Spending growth averaged nearly 10% between 2015 and 2017, supported by new resort openings.
Visitor spending increased by nearly $120 million in 2018. All spending categories grew.
Visitor spending in the region is dominated by domestic and leisure sectors.
Visitor spending in the Poconos is led by domestic, leisure, and overnight sectors.
Visitor spending flows through the economy and generates economic benefit through multiple channels.
Visitors and tourism businesses spent $3.3 billion in the Poconos in 2018. This supported a total of $4.3 billion in business sales when indirect and induced impacts are considered.
While the majority of sales are in industries directly serving visitors, $147 million in business sales is happening in finance, insurance and real estate as a result of selling to tourism businesses.
Travel generated $1.8 billion in GDP in 2018. This excludes all import leakages to arrive at the economic value generated by travel.
The lodging industry has the largest economic contribution from visitor spending, followed closely by recreational industry and restaurants.
Tourism supported a total of 35,201 jobs when indirect and induced impacts are considered.
With new attractions opening over the past five years, businesses have directly created more than 3,200 new jobs in the Poconos.
Tourism generated $665 million in direct income and $980 million when indirect and induced impacts are considered.
Visitor spending, visitor supported jobs, and business sales generated $520 million in governmental revenues.
62% of state and local governmental revenues generated by tourism went to local taxing authorities.
The Poconos saw nearly 29 million person-trips in 2018 – more than attended a NHL or NBA game over a full season (around 22 million)
To make up for the $520 million in state and local taxes generated by visitor activity, each household in the state would need to contribute $1,500 to maintain the current level of government.
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