Economic Benefits Associated with Corps of Engineers Programs Dr. Wen-Huei Chang PROSPECT COURSE - ECONOMIC ANALYSIS, March 2009

Overview Types of economic benefits associated with CE recreation program Why do Economic Impact Analysis? Technical approaches Applications Communication methods

Public Use of Natural Resources More than 400 Recreation Projects with parks in 43 states 12 million acres of federal lands and waters 56,000 miles shoreline Critical green space for wildlife and human populations 100 million fishing visits annually--31% of total on US lakes 9 million hunting visits 63 million wildlife watchers

Types of Economic Benefits National Economic Development (NED) benefits- consumer surplus Regional Economic Impact Analysis (EIA): actual flows of money into a region

Navigation: Recreation: A barge load of goods: NED benefits: Money saved in transportation costs compared to other alternatives Regional economic impacts : Jobs and income generated in this region from transportation and related industries A group of campers to a CE lake: NED benefits : The amount of money campers would be willing to pay beyond what they actually have to Regional economic impacts: Jobs and income generated in this region from visitor spending in recreation and related industries

NED vs. Regional Benefits NED benefits are captured in Rec- BEST using Unit Day Value approach Regional Economic Impacts are estimated using Visitor Surveys/ Input-output (I-O) Models These are two different accounts and should not be compared/added to each other

Why Do Economic Impact Analysis? To answer: How much do visitors spend in the region? How does visitor spending contribute to the region’s  Sales  Income  Jobs  Tax revenue

J Strom Thurmond Lake

How We Produce the Estimates Visitation: Visitation Estimation and Reporting System (under revision) Visitor Spending Surveys (ongoing efforts) Regional Economic Models (IMPLAN) The US Army Corps’ Recreation Economic Assessment System (REAS) Regional Economic Impacts = Visits  Spending  Multiplier

Visitor Spending Retail & Service Wholesale Manufacturer Other Suppliers Employees $100$52 $7 $15 $23 $25 $26 goes to other regions (leakages)

Regional Economic Impacts = Visits  Spending  Multiplier

Economic Benefits of CE Recreation Program In 2006, there were 372 million visits to Corps Lakes Total regional economic effects (from both residents and non-residents): Total Visitor Spending: $13 billion on trips and $5 billion on durable goods With multiplier effects, visitor spending supported 350,000 full and part time jobs and generated $22 billion in value added

Applying EIA Tools- Recreation Infrastructure Investment Once implemented, the proposed $125 million Recreation Area Modernization Program will in three years stimulate: $200 million in visitor spending $214 million in personal income 7,000 jobs

Great Lakes of Georgia Economic impact information of the nine Corps Lakes stimulated the partnership to market the “Great Lakes of Georgia” Results- Within two days 18 CVB’s committed $65,000, which was matched by the State for marketing campaign Links to NRM Gateway from

Applying EIA- Other Business Areas 945,400 visits a year $79 million on trip spending $39 million on durable goods by boaters Generated $42 million in personal income and supported 1,700 jobs in Oregon Maintaining navigation infrastructure for Oregon Ports supports recreation and benefits regional economy:

EIA Tools on the NRM CorpsLakes.usace.army.mil

EIA data on Value to the

Conclusions The Corps is important to the local, regional and state economy–it is an important story to tell Need for continued R & D to estimate, maintain, and update EIA data Process of assessing economic impacts can be applied to other business areas