Grand Canyon National Park

Park visitors boarding the free shuttle bus at the Hermits Rest Stop on the scenic and historic Hermit Road in Grand Canyon National Park in 2010.

The National Park Service said annual visitor spending in Arizona topped a billion dollars.

More than 10 million visitors spent a billion dollars in 2022, according to a report released by the National Park Service on Monday. 

The majority of that spending was in and around Grand Canyon National Park. The Park Service says tourism supported 16,000 direct and indirect jobs with a cumulative economic impact of $1.8 billion. 

The country’s most visited park is the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Straddling the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee, visitors spent more than $3 billion in the area. 

National Park Service economists analyzed visitor spending and the report, which the Service said was peer-reviewed, highlighted:

• Nearly 312 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. 
• $23.9 billion  of direct spending
• Visitor spending supported 378,400 jobs nationally; 314,600 of those jobs are in gateway communities. 
• The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $50.3 billion.   

Nationwide, the bulk of spending went to lodging, restaurants and gas. 

List of Arizona National Parks

• Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail   
• Canyon De Chelly National Monument   
• Casa Grande Ruins National Monument   
• Chiricahua National Monument   
• Coronado National Memorial   
• Fort Bowie National Historic Site   
• Glen Canyon National Recreation Area   
• Grand Canyon National Park   
• Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument   
• Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site   
• Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail   
• Lake Mead National Recreation Area   
• Montezuma Castle National Monument   
• Navajo National Monument   
• Old Spanish National Historic Trail   
• Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument   
• Petrified Forest National Park   
• Pipe Spring National Monument   
• Saguaro National Park   
• Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument   
• Tonto National Monument    
• Tumacácori National Historical Park   
• Tuzigoot National Monument   
• Walnut Canyon National Monument   
• Wupatki National Monument