Battlefields Are Good For Business

NEW MARKET, Va. – With additional preservation projects on the horizon and an effort underway to open 54 additional acres of the battlefield to visitors, investments in New Market by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation are having a positive impact on the local economy. A Virginia Tech study, recently made available to the public, found that the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, along with the visitors it draws, generated about $1.6 million in economic activity for the Town of New Market during the year-long study period.

Virginia Tech's Center for Economic and Community Engagement looked at two things: what the Foundation spends in the community to run its programs, and what visitors spend when they come to town for the battlefields. Researchers used visitor surveys, interviews with local businesses, the Foundation's spending records, and a standard economic model called IMPLAN. They only counted "new money," meaning spending that would not have happened without the battlefield sites, so the numbers lean conservative.

Here is what they found for the study year:

• $1.6 million in total economic impact for New Market
• 23 full-time-equivalent jobs supported
• $999,178 added to the town's GDP
• $76,113 in local tax revenue from sales, meals, lodging, and other sources

Local businesses told the researchers the same thing. At the seven businesses surveyed, between 41 and 60 percent of annual sales come from customers who live outside the area, and as many as 40 percent of those customers said the battlefields were their main reason for visiting. Owners said April through November is their busiest stretch and described battlefield visitors as loyal, repeat customers. Visitors also outspent the typical Virginia history traveler on retail, transportation, and entertainment, and overnight guests spent more than day-trippers across the board.

Visitor spending alone added about $448,000 in economic impact and supported 7 of those jobs. The Foundation's own operations added about $1.15 million and the other 16 jobs.

The study also pointed to benefits that don't show up on a balance sheet, including protected green space that residents can use at no cost to the town and the protection of surrounding property values.

The Virginia Tech study looked at New Market only, but the Foundation sees it as a snapshot of what preservation is doing for communities in the Shenandoah Valley. The report's recommendations include working with local hotels and inns on overnight packages, marketing together with regional partners, and buying more from local vendors. Overnight stays matter because those visitors spend the most. That thinking is behind the Tourism Enhancement Matching Grant Program, a $20,000 fund the Foundation and the Town of New Market created to help New Market businesses and nonprofits bring in more visitors.

District Wide Impacts and a Decade of Growth

The Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District as a whole shows the same pattern on a much larger scale. A National Park Service study conducted nearly ten years ago, before the Foundation’s recent upgrades in promotion, visitor access, and interpretation, pegged the District's annual economic impact at $293.2 million across its eight Virginia counties, with 3,930 jobs supported and $20.4 million in tax revenue. That study showed that about 2.05 million visitors come through the region in an average year. Overnight guests made up 40 percent of those visits but close to 80 percent of the economic benefit. Land purchases for battlefield preservation added another $2.3 million, counted separately.

Since 2016, the Virginia Tourism Corporation estimates that the Valley’s tourism economy has grown by 48%. Tourism is one of Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley’s largest industries and represents a major driver of the economy within the National Historic District.

The Takeaway

Over the last decade, through social and political upheaval, the rise and fall of inflation, a worldwide pandemic, and a technological revolution, preserved battlefields have proven to be a consistent and growing economic driver in the Shenandoah Valley – attracting visitors to local businesses, providing tax revenue, and millions of dollars of direct investment in communities that were once torn apart by a devastating war.

About the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation

In 1996, Congress designated eight counties in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia as a National Battlefield Site - the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields National Historic District - to preserve and interpret the region’s significant Civil War battlefields and related sites.

The effort is led by the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which has preserved more than 8,000 acres and works with partners to preserve the hallowed ground of the Valley’s Civil War battlefields, to share its story with the nation, and to encourage tourism in the Valley and travel to the Valley’s Civil War sites.

Learn more at shenandoahatwar.org.

Copies of both studies are available on request at info@svbf.net.