What is the economic impact of DNCR’s sites and programs to North Carolina’s economy?

DNCR is seeking research partners to quantify the statewide and local economic impact of its sites and programs using a consistent, replicable methodology. The info session was held on March 31, 2026. The next step is to submit a brief application by Monday, April 6, 2026.

DNCR’s mission is to enrich lives through education and stewardship of North Carolina’s natural and cultural resources. DNCR manages over 100 locations across the state, including 28 historic sites, eight history museums, two art museums, five science museums, four aquariums, 35 state parks, four recreation areas, dozens of state trails and natural areas, and the North Carolina Zoo. In addition to these major tourism destinations, most of which have free entry to the public, DNCR awards grants to organizations in all 100 counties to support local arts, libraries, museums, parks, trails, historic places, and to protect and restore land and water.

Although there is general data on the impact of tourism and outdoor recreation in North Carolina, we would like to understand economic impact of DNCR’s sites and programs to North Carolina’s economy and the cost-benefit of continued investment for these sites. This project aims to identify the overall impact of DNCR’s sites and programs to North Carolina’s economy and evaluate the individual impact of sites to local economies using a consistent, comparative, and replicable methodology.

DNCR does not have funding readily available. Agency and research partners will work together to determine if a project has costs, what funding may be available, and possibilities for pursuing funding, if needed.

The results of this analysis will help the Department understand local economic impact of our sites and our work using a consistent methodology and communicate the economic value of DNCR’s mission. Although there have been one-off studies for the NC Aquariums and a few other individual sites and programs, we have never assessed the department’s full local or statewide impact. During difficult budgetary times for our department and the state, this assessment will allow us to better understand our visitors and where our sites bring local economic value. This will help the department invest strategically in our programming.

DNCR will provide: onsite visitation data by site and month, grant awards announced by award amount and county, DNCR’s operational budget, and location data for all DNCR sites. DNCR does not currently have access to economic modeling software such as IMPLAN.

From Memorial Day through Labor Day 2026, DNCR sites will be collecting information from visitors via survey that can be aggregated and used for this analysis. The selected researcher will help shape the questions and methodology used for the survey.

Economic impact modeling