WAYS AND MEANS 257 



curios. It is probably reasonable to assume that in 1937 national-forest 

 visitors spent about 250 million dollars on or near the national forests. 

 This is about 5 percent of all outdoor recreational expenditures, assuming 

 that the 5-billion-dollar estimate for total expenditures is not too high. 



A widely quoted estimate of the American Automobile Association indi- 

 cates distribution of tourist expenditures as: "Out of each dollar spent, 

 approximately 20 cents goes toward transportation and a like amount 

 for accommodations, 25 cents for incidental retail purchases, 21 cents 

 for food, 8 cents for amusements, and 6 cents for refreshments." Similar 

 estimates by other agencies indicate about the same general distribution of 

 expenditures. 



These broad estimates fail, however, to emphasize the exceedingly 

 widespread influence exerted by the visitor's expenditures. Practically every 

 local business enterprise benefits to some extent. Forest visitors help relieve 

 local unemployment. They create markets for local farm produce. They are 

 buyers of the products of what might be called fireside industries, pottery, 

 bed quilts, homespun cloth, basketry, furniture, rugs, and novelty wooden 

 toys and souvenirs. The presence of forest visitors stimulates rentals, and 

 sometimes serves to lighten the local tax burden. And the tourist trade 

 seems to remain remarkably stable through all kinds of economic weather. 

 Even in the years immediately following the financial crash of 1929, people 

 continued to visit the national forests in ever-increasing numbers. There 

 was, it is true, a marked drop in the number of forest hotel and resort guests 

 during the deepest depression years, but recovery in this particular has been 

 surprisingly prompt and the number of campers and picnickers actually 

 increased throughout these years. It is even possible that the drop in the 

 hotel and resort business may not indicate a real decrease in number of 

 visitors so much as a transfer of patronage to less expensive accommoda- 

 tions. The 9,848 tourist camps reported by the Bureau of the Census in 

 1935 was almost twice the number reported in 1933. 



To sum up: Catering to forest tourists or visitors may not, for reasons 

 that have been suggested, prove an unmixed benefit to the residents of small 

 forest communities. Hunting and fishing may be less pleasant or less suc- 

 cessful for permanent residents. Some of the visitors are noisy and unpleasant. 



