Designed for cyclists, hikers, and cross-country skiers, the Great Allegheny Passage is also good for small businesses. According to a recent economic impact study, GAP users spend a whopping $12 million annually spending in small southwestern Pennsylvania towns along its 132 miles.
More users mean more business: 32 percent of firms surveyed reported expansions or plans to expand within the year.
The direct annual spending is in addition to $3 million in local wages for trail-oriented firms, said Amy Camp of the Trail Towns Program. As the route from Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland is completed, more users seek lodging and meals. Forty-one percent of users plan at least one night in B&Bs and hostels along the trail, spending an average of $98 a day, according to the survey, the first such report since 1998.
The Great Allegheny Passage has been honored as an outstanding example of rails to trails development by the Rails to Trails Conservancy, which named it as the first member of its hall of fame.
The first two phases of the study are now online. A third phase will be completed in August.
Source: Amy Camp, Trail Towns Program
Writer: Christine O’Toole
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