Financial impact:

• $200 million approximate value of the NASA and Department of Defense investments in the current 200-acre campus
• $2 million annual spending for local operating expenses
• $10 million total private contribution in the past seven years
• $3 million in government and private grants
• $2 million annual visitor potential (based on about 150 visitors per week)

Public outreach annual impact:

• 10,000 annual visitors to the portable StarLab planetarium
• 1,000 high school students accessing the “Smiley” radio telescope via the internet
• 750 visitors in academic and professional group tours
• 500 Space Day visitors
• 350 participants in the PARI home school initiative
• 300 Evening at PARI participants
• 200 student visitors
• 200 volunteers
• 450 seminar participants
• 7,000 visits to the PARI web site, www.pari.edu

Visitor impact analysis

Public outreach is a major component of PARI’s future plans.  When proper funding is secured, PARI plans to construct a science education center and open the facility to the general public.  While it is impossible to predict the exact number of people that will be attracted, it is reasonable to assume PARI will experience visitation similar to that of other nearby attractions.

The nearby North Carolina Arboretum logs a total of 250,000 visits each year.  The Bent Creek Experimental Forest (a 6,000 acre section of the Pisgah Forest about 20 miles from PARI) reports that 1,000 people per year take hosted tours of its experimental plots. The Cradle of Forestry has 50,000 paid visitors each year with about 10,000 more attending special events.  Based on these numbers, it is reasonable assume that PARI could attract 150 visitors per week, or about 7,800 per year.

The State of North Carolina estimates that in 2004 the state received 49 million visitors who spent a total of $13.2 billion, for an average of $269 each.  At that rate, 7,800 visitors to PARI would have an economic impact of more than $2 million per year.