Tourism spending rose for the second-straight year in Mariposa County in 2022, despite dealing with multiple destructive wildfires, a sluggish return for international travel, worldwide economic woes and entrance restrictions on Yosemite National Park.
In total, $350.6 million was spent by visitors to the county in 2022, up from $336.8 million in spending in 2021 according to The Economic Impact of Travel in California, a report published this week by Visit California and prepared by Dean Runyan Associates. 2021’s tourism spending was originally announced at $361.6 million, but was adjusted down by Dean Runyan Associates after the prior year’s report was published last May.
As tourism spending in Mariposa County continues to increase, so do jobs in the sector which improved by 1,320 new jobs – a 30% increase over 2021. Mariposa County’s workforce growth was nearly twice the state average of 16%. Historically, tourism in Mariposa County accounts for roughly 50% of the total workforce.
Adding to the good news, Mariposa County led all of California with 26.3% of all taxable sales being visitor generated. Outside dollars are supporting Mariposa County’s infrastructure and contribute to road improvements, fire defense and public safety more than that of its own citizen’s tax dollars do. Visitor tax revenue per household was $5,014, second only in the state to Mono County.
Despite all of the improvements in spending, jobs and visitor-generated taxable sales, Mariposa County is still working to return to its pre-pandemic spending totals of 2019 when the county saw visitors spend $467.2 million.
“2022 was a tough year in Mariposa County with all of the disruptions that came to visitation during what is generally our peak season,” said Yosemite Mariposa County Tourism Bureau CEO and Executive Director, Jonathan Farrington. “But what we continue to see is how resilient the residents of this county and its tourism industry is. After incidents like the Oak, Washburn and Agua Fires it is encouraging to see that our visitor spending still improved and that jobs continued to grow. But we still have work to do to return to our pre-pandemic levels.”
Locally spending increased in 2022, but Mariposa County’s 4.1% increase fell well behind the statewide average of 31.7% in part due to July’s wildfires which impacted peak-season lodging bookings into September. Early in 2022, spikes in inflation, gas prices and international concerns such as the War in Ukraine and an unfavorable exchange rate for Europeans coming to the U.S. caused concerns over planning “bucket list” trips for travelers both domestic and abroad.
In comparison, Mariposa County’s neighboring counties to the north and south saw similar growth percentages in economic spending. Overall spending was up 3.4% in Tuolumne County and was down 0.1% in Madera County. This illustrates that the lack of growth seen in Mariposa County as compared to the statewide average was likely due to factors specific to the Yosemite region such as Temporary Vehicle Reservations and wildfire impacts.
With no temporary vehicle reservations system in place in 2023 and international travel continuing to rebound, 2023 could be another year of financial growth for Mariposa County and its businesses, but already in 2023 the county has seen how weather and natural disasters can impact visitation and the monetary benefits it brings to its rural tourism focused county.
