The wild side of the lodging and food-service industry: a case study in Pennsylvania

Abstract

Although the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is bounded east and west by major metropolitan areas, much of the central and northern portion of the state is forested recreation land. Consequently, the state offers considerable opportunity for hunting and fishing. In turn, hunters and anglers offer considerable opportunity for hospitality organizations. A 1996 study of over 2,600 hunters and nearly 1,000 anglers attempted to quantify the size of Pennsylvania's hunting and fishing market. Hunters reported taking more than 17,000 hunting trips, most of them in November and December, and had spent an average of over $100 per hunter on their most recent trip. Extending that figure to the 1.1 million hunters registered in Pennsylvania yields an estimated expenditure of over $113 million on food and lodging. The numbers for fishing trips were even more impressive, in part since anglers are less likely to camp out than hunters (and therefore spend more for lodging). The per-person expenditure for the respondents' most recent fishing trip was $228. Extended to the one-million-plus anglers licensed in Pennsylvania, that figure exceeds $252 million for their most recent fishing trip. The authors suggest that tourism authorities could do more to tap into this immense market.