The Fiordland Trails Trust engaged market research company Angus & Associates to produce an impact assessment report to measure the economic impact of the Lake2Lake Trail which runs from Te Anau to Manapouri.
It was estimated its direct economic contribution in the year to March 2023 was $3.025 million, with 5148 people visiting it to cycle, walk or just as a tourist attraction.
These visitors collectively stayed more than 10,000 nights in the area and spent more than $1.8m in total, the report stated.
Fiordland Trails Trust chairman David Boniface said the assessment positively highlighted the value of the asset.
"That value wasn't known and we, as a trust, knew it had a great value within it.
"We've done an internal exercise ourself and came up with a number — but to have an independent expert complete this analysis and get to where they did, just for a snapshot of the year, we were very pleased."
He said this finding would help to source funding opportunities as currently they relied pretty much on local funders.
"We've never attracted a lot of government funding and we've now got a snapshot, which indicates its real value. Hopefully, that can be of assistance as we go forward."
This would be paramount for the potential expansion of the trail as the report indicated they did not have enough trail and network to make it an attraction in its own right, he said.
Currently the trail, which cost about $1.8m to be built, covers 33km.
"So we are committed to expanding our network and we are currently expanding to the north towards Te Anau Downs.
"We have resource consents in place to construct another 11km heading north up the lake ... but our limitation is funds of course."
While construction was limited, as they could not build trails across the national park, the trust would like to see an expansion towards Kepler Mire and the Whitestone River trail.
Almost three-quarters of trail users expressed support for those projects, he said.
"We're doing scoping exercises on those currently.
"Our intention is to make Te Anau a cycling hub... the hub being the centre and trails radiating out. There's hundreds of kilometres of trails that we could build so we are working hard to make this happen," Mr Boniface said.
