By Lee Davis, Executive Director

The outdoor recreation economy has been devastated in unique ways by the layered impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. This is a huge problem for the people whose livelihoods are directly tied to outdoor recreation, and a blow to the rural communities that have been buoyed by recreation dollars.

This is a crisis, to be sure, but it’s also an opportunity to address the significant structural challenges that have in recent years kept the outdoor economy from achieving its full potential. The right investments, right now, have the potential to do much more than help outdoor recreation industries recover: they can lay the foundation for sustained rural economic growth and begin the work of making the outdoors more welcoming and inclusive for work and play.

First the bad news 

Working in partnership with the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable our team here at Oregon State University just completed a survey of trade associations representing over 100,000 businesses and nearly 2 million employees, the impact is startling. Of the businesses this survey represents:

• 89% are experiencing difficulty with production and distribution, with 68% experiencing significant impacts.
• 79% of these businesses have laid off or furloughed a portion of their workforce, with 11% closing, or laying off most of or all of staff.
• 89% of outdoor industry businesses are experiencing a decrease in sales with 39% seeing a decrease of 50-75% or greater.

These numbers paint a chilling picture, but they miss the uniquely seasonal nature of this economy.

Take the experience of rafting outfitters, for example. These micro-businesses are completely shut down at the moment, but even if they were to get the green light to reopen his business, they have  already missed their window to book clients for the coming season—and hire the skilled employees they need to serve them.

The potential

Small and micro-enterprses are the lifeblood of an industry that is fast becoming an economic powerhouse. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), outdoor recreation represented 2.2% of America’s GDP in 2017,the most recent year for which data is available. It generated more than 5.2 million jobs and over $425 billion in annual revenue that year and grew by 3.9%, more than 60% faster than the 2.4 % growth of the overall U.S. economy. Guided tours and outfitted travel businesses—like Joe’s rafting company — grew at a whopping 11.4%. 

Outdoor recreation delivers economic benefits that surpass that of higher-profile industries like mining and big pharma, and unlike in other industries of comparable size, the majority of the outdoor industry’s benefits are realized by small businesses in rural communities.

Outdoor recreation also makes life better. It makes communities stronger, delivers quantifiable health benefits and deepens peoples connection to the places they love. That’s pretty intuitive. It’s also backed up by research.

Where do we go from here?

The outdoor recreation industry has been thrown into a moment of profound disruption. To help repair the damage, there is no question that public and private sources will make huge investments in the coming year. The question is this: will the goal simply be a return to the status quo, or will we take this once-in-a-generation opportunity to help the industry come into maturity as a driver of equity, inclusion a diversity and as a model for economic opportunity that supports the health of the land, air and water?

This is our moment. Let’s rise to meet it.