Water-based Outdoor Recreation Generates $11.7 Billion Annually for Arizona's Economy

PHOENIX, AZ—Audubon Southwest launched a brand new report back to assist illustrate the financial worth of water in Arizona’s rivers, lakes, and streams.

The Nationwide Audubon Society’s southwest regional workplace labored with Southwick Associates, an outdoor-focused analysis agency, to investigate the financial contributions related to water-based out of doors recreation in Arizona, outlined as doing the next actions on or alongside rivers, lakes, and streams in Arizona:

Bicycling
Biking
Tenting
Fishing
Looking/goal taking pictures
Picnicking/stress-free outside
Path sports activities (climbing, backpacking, path operating, horseback driving, climbing, and mountaineering)
Water sports activities (swimming, canoeing, kayaking, rafting, paddle-boarding, boating)
Wildlife watching

“This new examine confirms what residents and our tens of thousands and thousands of tourists have already skilled. There’s a magnetic pull to water in Arizona, particularly since we’re so intently related with the desert,” mentioned Lena Allen, Director of Stewardship for the Arizona Workplace of Tourism. “From the mighty Colorado River to the light streams of the White Mountains and the cottonwood-lined San Pedro River, water right here delivers life and financial success for communities statewide.”

The brand new evaluation assessed participation in water-based recreation by Arizona residents and the time they spent recreating between September 2024 and August 2025. The examine additionally estimated resident and non-resident spending on varied water-based leisure actions to measure the financial contributions generated yearly from rivers, lakes, and streams all through the state.

Key Examine Findings:  

Water-based out of doors recreation generates $11.7 billion in financial output yearly in Arizona.
Arizonans and guests collectively spent $9.7 billion in Arizona on water-related out of doors recreation.
Water-based out of doors recreation helps 72,000+ jobs throughout Arizona, with these jobs paying annual wages of practically $4 billion.
Recreation alongside water added greater than $6.9 billion to the state’s Gross Home Product.

“Water-based out of doors recreation is a useful option to measure the financial contributions of the water in our rivers, lakes, and streams as a result of with out water, a lot of the financial exercise would stop. Individuals don’t fish in dry lakes or kayak in dry riverbeds,” mentioned Haley Paul, Senior Coverage Director for Audubon Southwest.

Comparatively, water-based out of doors recreation as an trade creates extra financial output ($11.7 billion) than Arizona’s golf ($6 billion) or wine ($5.7 billion) industries. Whereas mining creates extra financial output ($21.2 billion), water-related out of doors recreation helps extra employment all through the state.

The outcomes are additionally damaged down to the county stage. For instance, water-based recreation in Yavapai County generates $720 million in financial output and helps 4,500 jobs within the state.

“This report gives vital perception into the financial advantages that the Verde River gives when it comes to recreation for the Metropolis of Cottonwood and all of its Yavapai County neighbors who acknowledge and depend on this free-flowing Arizona river as a life-source and habitat, not only for the wildlife that the Nationwide Audubon Society works so diligently to protect, however for all of us who thrive alongside its banks,” mentioned Cottonwood Mayor Ann Shaw.

Greater than 2.2 million Arizona residents take part in a number of out of doors leisure exercise on or alongside water within the state—practically 39% of the state’s grownup inhabitants. Most Arizona residents say that water provides considerably to their enjoyment of outside actions inside the state.

The hottest water-related actions amongst Arizona residents included picnicking / stress-free outside (21.4%), water sports activities (14.1%), and fishing (12.2%). The actions Arizona residents participated in fluctuate by county, reflecting the range of the state’s landscapes and what they have to supply when it comes to water-based out of doors recreation.

Arizona’s rivers, lakes, streams, and the habitat they help are important for folks, birds, fish, and different wildlife. This report exhibits they’re additionally an financial powerhouse for the state.

For the complete technical report (together with methodology), particular person county reality sheets, govt abstract, and extra, please go to audubon.org/azrivers.

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About Audubon
The Nationwide Audubon Society protects birds and the locations they want, at present and tomorrow. Included in 1905, the Nationwide Audubon Society is among the oldest and only fowl conservation organizations within the Western Hemisphere. Audubon works all through the Americas utilizing science, advocacy, training and on-the-ground conservation. Audubon Southwest is the regional workplace of the Nationwide Audubon Society protecting Arizona and New Mexico. Study extra at audubon.org/southwest

Media Contact: Erika Flores, erika.flores@audubon.org

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