According to our friends and colleagues at the Motorcycle Industry Council, things are looking up. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released 2020 data detailing how outdoor recreation continues to generate billions in economic output and create millions of American jobs. When it came to adding economic value, motorcycle and ATV riding came in fourth largest among the most popular outdoor activities in the nation.
“Sales of motorcycles and ATVs were up considerably in 2020, and that trend is continuing in 2021," explained Erik Pritchard, MIC president and CEO. "More families and individuals are recreating outdoors close to home, which highlights the need to support expanded access to public lands and investments into recreation infrastructure."
BEA numbers show outdoor recreation generates $689 billion in economic output and creates 4.3 million jobs. This is the fourth consecutive year that BEA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, has released government data on this critical industry sector. Prior to 2020, the outdoor recreation economy was growing faster than the economy in every indicator and served as a resilient economic growth engine and job creator. Several outdoor industry segments, including boating and fishing, biking, camping and RVing, hunting and shooting sports and powersports, experienced record sales and unprecedented growth.
“Despite the pandemic, public lands and water closures, canceled trips and travel, gathering restrictions, supply chain issues and more, the outdoor recreation economy is a huge contributor to national and local economies,” said Jessica Turner, president of the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR). “This data, along with what we have seen throughout the past year and a half, proves how vital continued investments in our public lands and waters and recreation infrastructure are to the national and local economies and how communities big and small, rural and urban, benefit from outdoor recreation.”