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The Splendor of Spring
Glacier Country’s Glaciers to Geysers Motorcycling Campaign Launches
Spring has sprung in Western Montana. The snow is melting, wildflowers are blooming and wildlife is emerging. As warm season adventure begins to ramp up, the Glacier Country team has been working on multiple projects to promote the region. We launched the warm season campaign on March 1, along with the Glaciers to Geysers motorcycle
campaign—a joint venture with Yellowstone Country Montana. This niche market campaign focuses on the two regions’ scenic byways and promotes the areas between Montana’s iconic national parks—Glacier and Yellowstone. This campaign is supported by a 12-page inset in Road Runner magazine and digital placements across Bonnier Motorcycle Network and in 10 geographic markets: Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Houston, Alberta, Chicago, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco and Dallas.
In other news, we printed and delivered our 2019 – 2020 Glacier Country Travel Guide in late March. If you’d like free copies for your business, call Kristi at 406.532.3234. We were excited to also include Glacier Country Tourism’s FY 2018 annual report in this year’s mailing. In it we summarized our accomplishments and highlights from FY 2018, and included a financial overview and marketing metrics and objectives.
To provide high-value educational trainings to local businesses, we held a tourism workshop—the Glacier Country Tourism Summit. The spring 2019 summit was a great success and covered branding, social media, working with groups, public relations and consumer marketing. Glacier Country will hold the second summit this fall in the southern part
of the region.
We recently launched the Glacier Country Cooperative Marketing Grant Program. Geared toward tourism-related nonprofits that are developing or expanding a marketing project, applications are being accepted now on Submittable at glaciercountrytourism.submittable.com/submit. Funding is available for qualifying projects on a first come, first
served basis.
Lastly, save room in your schedule for our Customer Service Trainings coming to a community near you in May
and June.
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In 2017, nonresident visitors spent more than
$3.36 billion
in Montana—with more than $1.1 billion spent in Glacier Country.
(Institute for Tourism & Recreation Research, ITRR) |
Montana had 393,800 nonresident motorcyclist visitors who spent
more than
$80 million
between April and September
of 2018.
(ITRR)
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Tourism in
Montana supported
more than
$1.6 billion
in associated labor
income in 2017.
(ITRR)
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Mark Your Calendar
Board Meetings |
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MAY
14 |
May 14, 2019
noon – 3 p.m.
Vista Linda Mexican
& Catering, Somers |
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OCT
15 |
October 15, 2019
noon – 3 p.m.
C’mon Inn, Missoula |
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DEC
10 |
December 10, 2019
noon – 3 p.m.
TBD, Kalispell |
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Our board meetings are open to the public, and we welcome attendance. As a reminder, board training/roundtable discussions are from noon – 12:50 p.m., with the business meeting starting at 1 p.m. To learn more, please call the Glacier Country Tourism office at 800.956.6537 or 406.532.3234, or drop us a note at glaciercountry@glaciermt.com.
MILESTONES FY 2019
THROUGH FEBRUARY 2019
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Tablet-Friendly Guide Visits
43,233 |
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Call Center Inquiries (phone, email, live chat and travel guide distribution)
95,807 |
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Website Visits
908,786 |
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Social Media Engagement
16,135,025 |
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Need travel guides? Call Kristi McNeal, Glacier Country Tourism's office manager, at 406.532.3234.
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Public Relations and
Tourism Sales Update
 Glacier Country Tourism’s Public Relations and Earned Media Manager, Lucy Guthrie Beighle, planned trips for numerous influencers and journalists this quarter as a result of last fall’s media events and International Media Marketplace conference. She also hosted Rita Cook and Sarah Reiss, who both spent five days in the area gathering content for Insider Magazine. Lucy is assisting the Whitefish and Kalispell CVBs with a media trip to promote the new American Airlines flight between DFW and FCA and started the preparations for an eight-journalist Glacier Country
FAM trip in September 2019 following the Travel Blogger Exchange (TBEX) conference to be held in Billings. To date, earned media has garnered $1.2 million in value for our Public Relations program. This is equivalent of $1.2 million in advertising value.
The business-to-business trade show season is upon us and our tourism sales manager, Debbie Picard, has been busy promoting Western Montana’s Glacier Country around the U.S. She will be attending International Roundup at the
end of April to meet with 40 international tour operators interested in itineraries for the Great American West—a region that includes Montana, Idaho,
Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota. The first week in June she will join other state tourism partners in a Montana booth at IPW, the largest international travel trade show in the U.S., to meet with 50 tour operators. Also in June, Debbie will host—in conjunction with Destination Missoula, Discover Kalispell and Explore Whitefish—a meeting planner FAM to introduce four meeting planners to our great convention hotels, offsite venues and attractions for their next meeting or convention. Please be sure to contact Debbie and share what is new at your business, lodging property, attraction or community so that she can share that information while she is out on the road. After each show, Debbie’s trade show leads are available on the Partner Center for follow-up by Glacier Country partners.
For more information about our PR and earned media or tourism sales departments, email Lucy or Debbie at lucy@glaciermt.com or debbie@glaciermt.com.
Digital Advertising Opportunities
Spring and Summer Premium Positions Available
More than 1.6 million unique visitors a year use glaciermt.com when planning their Montana vacations. As a Glacier Country partner, you have the opportunity to expose your business to these travelers by advertising on glaciermt.com during peak website traffic months. Take advantage with homepage and internal premium ad positions available to partners—we still have some May through July availability.
Don’t pass up the opportunity to place your business front and center!
For more information or to secure a placement, email Glacier Country Tourism’s Contract Agent for Media and Partnership Services, Scott Woodall, at scott@windfallstudio.com.
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membercenter.glaciermt.com
Disclaimer
© 2019 Glacier Country Regional Tourism Commission. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of any material must be with the consent of the Glacier Country Regional Tourism Commission. Produced with Accommodations Tax Funds.
Glacier Country Tourism is operated by a Board of Directors (made up of two members from each county in Glacier Country: Flathead, Glacier, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral, Missoula, Ravalli and Sanders, up to eight at-large representatives and up to six ex-officio) and the executive director. The board operates under strict rules and regulations set by the Governor’s Tourism Advisory Council (TAC) and the Montana legislature. The Glacier Country Tourism marketing plan and projects are approved by the board and then submitted to the TAC for final approval.
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