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The Great Smoky Mountains National Park leads the nation in visitor spending.

According to a recently released National Park Service study, the Park is not only the nation's most visited national park, but it also tops the 391 national park units in visitor spending. The study estimates that in 2008 the Park's 9 million visitors spent over $800 million in the gateway communities surrounding the Park, supporting an estimated 14,569 local jobs were supported by visitor spending.

The study, “National Park Visitor Spending and Payroll Impacts”, was conducted by professor Daniel Stynes of the Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies at Michigan State University.

“The National Park Service received 274.9 million recreational visits in 2008,” Stynes wrote. “Park Visitors spent $11.56 billion in local gateway regions. Parks also impact the local region through the NPS payroll. In 2008 the National Park Service employed 24,954 people with a total payroll of $1,203 million in wages and salaries and $313 million in payroll benefits.”

The top five NPS units in terms of spending generated were Great Smoky Mountains National Park with $800 million, the Grand Canyon at $423 million, Yellowstone National Park at $345 million, the Blue Ridge Parkway with $342 million and Yosemite National Park with $292 million.