The advantage of constructing an economic account on outdoor recreation within the framework used for BEA’s GDP accounts is that the overall outdoor recreation economy can be compared to GDP for the nation. This includes as a percentage of GDP as well as whether GDP for the outdoor recreation economy is growing faster or slower than the overall U.S. economy. For the outdoor recreation satellite account, BEA provides a measure of “value added” by each industry that makes up the outdoor recreation economy, as well as total value added for the outdoor recreation economy overall. Value added refers to the contribution of labor and capital by each industry to the nation’s GDP. It is the value that an industry generates after it has accounted for its costs of energy, materials, and services used up in production.
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