The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR) released a letter on Tuesday signed by 29 national outdoor recreation trade associations, supporting more 100,000 businesses, urging Congress to pass the Great American Outdoors Act.
ORR says this legislation would fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and address the nation’s public lands maintenance backlog in order to support rural communities and rescue the outdoor recreation industry, made up of 90 percent small businesses, during this unprecedented downturn.
With supply chains stalled, retailers shuttered, parks closed, and trips and travel canceled, the $778 billion outdoor industry is uniquely impacted by COVID-19 mitigation efforts, ORR says. An industry survey last week found that 79 percent of outdoor businesses have had to lay off or furlough employees, and that 89 percent are seeing decreased revenue.
Traditionally representing 2.2 percent of the GDP, 5.2 million jobs, and growing faster than the economy as a whole in every indicator, the outdoor industry is rallying together to urge Congress to pass GAOA and make smart fixes to the CARES Act to support this sector key to national economic recovery.
You can read the full letter to Congress by clicking here.