Outdoor Recreation

Outdoor recreation trip and travel expenses are prepared following the same methodology used in BEA’s Travel and Tourism Satellite Account (TTSA). Outdoor recreation trips are defined as travel that occurs at least 50 miles away from home, corresponding to the definition used in the TTSA. The definitions, framework, and estimation methods used for the TTSA follow the guidelines developed by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for similar travel and tourism accounts.

Gross domestic product (or value added) by industry and gross output by industry are both published as part of BEA's industry accounts, and both sets of statistics provide important insights into an industry’s contribution to the overall economy.

The advantage of constructing an economic account on outdoor recreation within the framework used for BEA’s GDP accounts is that the overall outdoor recreation economy can be compared to GDP for the nation. This includes as a percentage of GDP as well as whether GDP for the outdoor recreation economy is growing faster or slower than the overall U.S. economy. For the outdoor recreation satellite account, BEA provides a measure of “value added” by each industry that makes up the outdoor recreation economy, as well as total value added for the outdoor recreation economy overall.

BEA's measure of the outdoor recreation economy is prepared within an economic accounting framework that is fully consistent with how the GDP accounts for the Nation are constructed. This framework also underpins the estimates of BEA's other “satellite accounts,” such as that for arts and cultural production and for travel and tourism. The prototype estimates for this account include measures of gross output, value added, compensation of employees and employment by industry, and for the overall outdoor recreation economy.

Economic activity associated with outdoor recreation is already embedded in BEA’s core statistics, including data on production, GDP, employment, and compensation.; For the Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account, these embedded data elements will be pulled out of the core accounts and combined in a unified framework that separately highlights activity associated with the outdoor recreation economy.

Because each satellite account is designed to stand alone and provide detail on a particular aspect of the economy not separately visible in the standard national and industry estimates, they may at times overlap. For example, the portion of travel and tourism associated with outdoor recreation will appear in both the ORSA and the TTSA.

BEA is developing the ORSA estimates under a two-year interagency agreement with the Department of Interior and other Federal Recreation Council agencies, and as stipulated in the Outdoor Recreation Jobs and Economy Act of 2016.  On September 20, 2019, BEA published prototype estimates of state level value added, compensation, and employment by industry, and value added by activity.

To define outdoor recreation, BEA has worked closely with the Federal Recreation Council (made up of agencies that are prominent stewards of public lands and waters), gathered input from experts in the field of outdoor economics, and listened to public comments. In early 2018, BEA will publish two sets of prototype statistics on outdoor recreation, one using a broad and the other a narrow definition. These working definitions are:;