State heading for third strong tourist year

Glacier Park sees 13 percent increase

The Montana tourist industry saw a very strong summer season this year, according to preliminary figures.

Part of the credit goes to the weather, which favored Montana’s outdoor recreation and helped get Glacier National Park’s Going-to-the-Sun Road open sooner this year.

The National Park Service announced last week that more than 1.7 million people visited Glacier Park from January through August in 2012, a 13 percent increase over the same time period last year. The number of visitors were higher in each month from May through August. Both May and June saw big increases over last year, by 20.8 percent and 17.8 percent respectively. The Park also posted increases in Facebook likes and Twitter followers.

Last year, 10.5 million tourists spent $2.8 billion in Montana, and year-to-date the figures for 2012 could be higher. Preliminary survey results from the University of Montana’s Institute of Tourism and Recreation Research show a 6 percent increase in tourists for the first half of the year over the same period last year.

“We benefited from steady gas prices, a national uptick in travel and warm weather early in the season,” said Stuart Doggett, executive director of the Montana Lodging and Hospitality Association. “Paired together with Montana’s strong tourism marketing, it seems like everything came together to create a successful summer.”

Montana’s 84 percent hotel room occupancy rate outperformed the national average for June and July and topped all 50 states for July. Demand increased average daily room rates in Montana over the past year by nearly 8 percent for June and more than 4 percent for July, according to Smith Travel Research. Hotel occupancy in Montana through July is 3 percent higher and room revenue is nearly 10 percent higher compared to the same period last year.

Here in the Flathead, how long the Sun Road is open to vehicle travel has a big impact on the tourist industry — and that can depend on late spring weather and ongoing reconstruction.

“We’ve had a good season,” said Dee Brown, a former state legislator who owns an RV campground in Coram. “The sole factor is the Sun Road being open earlier and longer.”

She noted that the fall tourist season here could improve dramatically next year as 2012 will be the last year the west side of the Sun Road will close early for reconstruction work.

“Getting the Sun Road open longer is a fast way to get our Canadian neighbors down here spending much needed money in the Flathead economy,” she said. “Members of the Columbia Falls Chamber all agree — they’re seeing more Canadian visitors, more weddings — even spending on second homes.”

The tourist industry in Montana has generally held its ground through the current recession. Visits to Glacier Park were 12 percent higher in 2009 and 10 percent higher in 2010, the year of the centennial celebration, but they fell 20 percent in 2011, probably due to the Sun Road’s late opening.

This year, the number of Park visitors in June and July is 12 percent higher than for the same period last year, according to National Park Service figures.

Statewide, bed tax revenue has been up and down since the recession began, falling by 9 percent in 2009 before climbing 8 percent in 2010 and increasing by 2 percent in 2011.

Brown notes, however, that bed taxes are based on the gross revenue of motels and hotels, not the number of guests. As costs have gone up with inflation, so too have guest prices and therefore bed tax revenue.

Passenger boardings at Glacier Park International Airport have been climbing back, reaching a record level in August. The numbers plummeted 15 percent in 2009 before climbing back 6 percent in 2010 and 8 percent in 2011. Passenger numbers in 2011 were down 2 percent from 2008, the year the recession began.

GPI Airport numbers, however, dramatically improved this year. Passenger volume in August was about 8 percent higher than in August 2011, reaching 29,985 paying customers this year. That’s also higher than the record July this year.

Statewide this year, passenger boardings were 7 percent higher in June and 8 percent higher in July over the same period last year, according to the Montana Department of Transportation.

“We’re waiting for August results, and we still have four months left in 2012,” Doggett said, “but we’re optimistic that Montana will see a third consecutive year of tourism growth by the end of December.”