Tourism dependence in rural America: Estimates and effects

Recreation and tourism development continue to play an important role in re shaping rural America. Efforts to evaluate the effects of such development are complicated because residents and nonrecreation visitors also use the b usinesses that are affected by recreation and tourism visitors. We present a method for estimating in nonmetropolitan counties jobs and income that ar e generated by recreation and tourism visitors from outside the county. Sev eral different techniques are used to (1) cluster similar counties, (2) acc ount for the portion of tourism sector employment that serves local residen ts, and (3) account for the portion of export activity that serves nonrecre ation visitors. Finally, we address the consequences of recreation dependen ce in rural counties. The counties most dependent on nonlocal tourism activ ity are compared to other rural counties on income, population, economic st ructure, and housing variables.