June 11, 2012

Report: Maine camps generate $332M for economy

By Jessica Hall jhall@pressherald.com
Staff Writer

Maine’s summer camps provide more than just fun. There’s money to be made, as well.

Summer camps generate a total economic impact of $332 million, including payroll, benefits and goods and services bought by the camps that range from bug spray to fuel to food, according to a study by Planning Decisions Inc. A 2005 study found that the economic impact was $245 million. The economic impact report was commissioned by the American Camp Association.

The study found that the economic impact of the summer camp industry was about 90 percent as large as Maine's boatbuilding sector, about 40 percent as big as the value of the annual lobster landings and about 34 percent as large as the state's commercial logging sector.

Maine’s 330 day and residential camps have 500 full-time employees and 10,500 seasonal workers. The combination of their annual operational and capital spending, plus the spending of the more than 45,000 out-of-state visitors amounts to more than $171 million for the Maine economy, the study found.

For camps running in the nine states from New Jersey to Maine, the economic benefit totals $3.2 billion, the study found. There are 7,000 camps in the Northeast that employ 190,000 workers seasonally and 11,000 full-time. Those workers receive more than $900 million in wages. The bulk of the seasonal jobs are held by 16- to 24-year-olds.

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