Mike Maryland Symposium 2012 – William Atkinson

http://www.trailtowns.org/

Overview

The Great Allegheny Passage has taken this region by storm:

An estimated 800,000 trips are taken on the GAP annually.
Over $40 million in direct annual spending is attributed to trail user spending.
Trail-related businesses pay out $7.5 million in wages each year to accommodate trail generated business.
Since 2007, there’s been an overall increase of 54 new and expanded trail-serving businesses, creating 83 new jobs in eight communities.
The trail has been named one of the country’s best bike trails and has been covered by National Geographic Adventure, New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and USA Today.