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RECREATION
Shattering the 'Granola Myth': $27M-$54M Spent Annually in the Adirondack Park Is No Small Change
Authors of a new study that crunches the granola myth are busy spreading the good word.
By Susan V. Wheeler
If you're reading Adirondack Sports & Fitness, you're an outdoor enthusiast who loves spending time playing in the North Country. A new study tells us you also spend money on your treks to the North Country — and not just a couple of bucks for a bottle of water or a protein bar. According to study estimates, you and other hikers, bicyclists and paddlers spend upward of $54 million each year in the Adirondack Park.
John T. Omohundro, a professor of anthropology and director of Learning Communities at the State University of New York College at Potsdam, conducted the study last summer with two undergraduates, Shane La Gray and Karen Sauther. Omohundro says he undertook the study because there was some question about how much money nonmotorized recreationists spend in the Adirondack Park and most published evidence is "anecdotal."
"Besides resource values, ecoservice values and others, there is the obvious value of income from recreationists that a wildland draws," Omohundro says. "We could find information on what snowmobilers and fishermen spent, but there was a dearth of accessible information about hiker/paddler-type recreation. So in 2000-2001, two students [La Gray and Sauther] and I decided to fill that gap — not only to find the answers, but to make sure they were publicized."
Omohundro is well on his way to making sure the study's results are publicized. It's already received attention in North Country publications, and he, La Gray and Sauther presented the study's results at the Adirondack Research Consortium Conference in Saranac Lake in late May. Reception of the report at the conference, which is an annual gathering of all scholars and research organizations interested in the Adirondacks, was twofold, according to Omohundro.
"Some people came up and said, 'Now that we think about it, that does describe our own Adirondack spending patterns pretty well …' and others said, 'We gotta have this report. This is just what we need to show that hikers, skiers and such spend money in the community,'" says Omohundro. "My sense was that people were really pleased to learn that the 'granola myth' was without basis in fact."
According to Omohundro, the study's results clearly dispel the "granola myth," which offers that the typical nonmotorized recreationist enters the Adirondack Park with what is needed for the day in a backpack, then leaves again without ever spending any money. The authors state in a final report on the study that nonmotorized backcountry users spend $27 million to $54 million annually in the Park for services like food and lodging, and they make substantial outdoor gear purchases at stores in the Park. "Our Adirondack data are supported by similar results from other state parks in New York and in Maine," they report.
For some, the study's results don't seem so surprising. Ann Melious, executive director of the Adirondack Regional Tourism Council, says results of Omohundro's study are consistent with results from national studies on the travel industry. For example, the majority of groups responding to Omohundro's study included nonmotorized recreationists who were 40 years old or older, and most visiting recreationists — nearly 75 percent of interviewed groups — said they were in the Park for more than three days, but not camping.
Melious says the study makes sense demographically: National studies indicate that the population is aging, and that baby boomers' disposal income is "pretty decent," but their vacation hours have been reduced. She says other studies indicate that more vacationers are partaking in "soft adventure," in which they spend days physically active hiking, cycling or paddling, and evenings dining out and sleeping comfortably in lodging facilities.
The final report on nonmotorized recreationists states that additional surveying is needed, though it is expensive. Each interview conducted for the 2000-2001 study cost about $20 in labor and transportation. It also states that improvements can be made in future surveys: the time sample should be increased from 4 percent to 5-10 percent; the variety in sample sites should be increased to include some technical climbers, kayakers and fly fisherman among others; the interview protocol "could more accurately capture expenses in the higher ranges"; and the interview should include questions on exactly where interviewees spent their money in the Adirondacks.
For now, Omohundro is focused on spreading the good word about hikers and encouraging others to continue this type of research. Omohundro says he, La Gray and Sauther hope to publish study results in the Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies. They also are submitting a copy of study results to the state Department of Environmental Conversation. Another goal, he says, is "to draw university professors into encouraging their graduate students to carry on this work."
Study
Specifics
To get their survey interviews, researchers La Gray and Sauther stationed
themselves at six sites in the Adirondack Park from late May to late August,
and asked all outdoor recreationists structured questions about when and
how they visited the Park; how much money they spent in the Park; and
what they bought with the money they spent there. The six sites they chose,
based on location and types of users, were: Ampersand Mountain trailhead,
Newcomb visitor center trails, Little Tupper canoe put-in, St. Regis canoe
put-in, Cascade Mountain trailhead and Whiteface's mountain biking trails.
La Gray and Sauther spoke with 195 groups comprising 568 people.
According to Omohundro, estimates are "conservative but certain" for all users at those sites for that time period.
Survey estimates indicate that visitors to Cascade's hiking trails, Whiteface's mountain biking trails and Ampersand's hiking trails respectively spent the most money, with a total estimate for all sites, all summer and all users between $1 million and $2 million. That figure jumps to an estimated $2 million to $3 million for the entire year.
Some other interview results and estimates follow:
• Most
of expenditures (71 percent) are considered "sticky money" purchases
— money spent in the Park that stays in the Park, such as on lodging,
food and shopping.
• Recreationists spent an average of $25 to $42 per person per day
during their trip to the Park.
• Recreationists spent $207-$323 on average per party during their
trip to the Park and $71-$111 per person during their trip to the Park.
• July was the month in which average expenses per party was the
greatest.
• Items for which recreationists spent the most money in the Adirondacks
are boots, packs, boats/canoes and fishing gear.
Susan V. Wheeler is an Albany-based writer and editor who enjoys hiking,
walking, running and horseback riding.
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