Promoting the Abundance of Fall
Fiscal Year 2020 Marketing Kicks Off

Warm season is coming to an end, and, with winter just around the corner, the Glacier Country Tourism staff has been busy promoting Western Montana’s shoulder seasons. We also wrapped up a successful FY 2019 and began FY 2020 projects. In August, the Glacier Country Tourism board pre-approved the FY 2020 paid media plan. In FY 2020 Glacier Country Tourism will spend more than $356K on paid media. A few of the FY 2020 placements include features in Smart Meetings, Madden Media and Northwest Travel. Digital efforts include targeted and retargeted advertising based on geographic, demographic and psychographic traits for these key domestic markets: Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, Houston, Alberta, Chicago, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco and Dallas.

Glacier Country Tourism continues to expand the Glaciers to Geysers program—a joint venture with Yellowstone Country Montana. This niche market campaign focuses on Glacier Country’s scenic byways and promotes the areas between Montana’s iconic national parks—Glacier and Yellowstone. FY 2019 focused on motorcycling and snowmobiling. FY 2020 will continue to promote Western Montana to those markets and create new content for the winter sports market—Nordic, downhill and multisport—this fall and winter at an investment of $20,000. Next spring, we will invest $20,000 in the museum market.

To provide high-value educational trainings to local businesses, we hosted another tourism workshop—the Glacier Country Tourism Summit. The fall 2019 summit was a great success; it covered branding, social media, the key to working with groups, public relations and earned media and paid consumer marketing.

TOURISM FAST FACTS

In 2018, more than
$250 million
was spent in the region by nonresident visitors at restaurants, bars and breweries. (Institute for Tourism & Recreation Research, ITRR)

27%
of all Montana’s nonresident
visitors came between April
and June, making it the second
busiest quarter in 2018.
(ITRR)

 

11%
of all nonresident visitor spending in the region was on retail sales, higher than the 9% spend statewide in 2018.
(ITRR)

Mark Your Calendar
Board Meetings


DEC

10

December 10, 2019
noon – 3 p.m.
Northwest Montana History Museum, Kalispell

MAR

10

March 10, 2020
noon – 3 p.m.
Missoula

MAY

12

May 12, 2020
noon – 3 p.m.
West Glacier Area

Our board meetings are open to the public, and we welcome attendance. Board training is from noon – 12:50 p.m., and the business meeting starts 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 2020
through September 2019

Tablet-Friendly Guide Visits

17,528

Call Center Inquiries
(phone, email, live chat and travel guide distribution)

27,542

Website Visits

339,297

Social Media Engagement

308,496

Paid Media Impressions

42,787,353

Earned Media Ad Value
(Oct. 2018 through Sept. 2019)

$2,555,575

 

Need travel guides? Call Kristi McNeal, Glacier Country Tourism's office manager, at 406.532.3234.

 

Public Relations and
Tourism Sales Update

TBEX 2019Glacier Country Tourism’s Public Relations and Earned Media Manager, Lucy Guthrie Beighle, has been busy promoting Glacier Country’s shoulder season by hosting and planning media trips. In June she hosted, in partnership with Whitefish and Kalispell CVBs, a media trip to promote the new American Airlines flight from Dallas-Fort Worth to Glacier Park International. This media trip has already resulted in more than $300K of Earned Media. In September Lucy attended the Travel Blogger Exchange (TBEX) where she held appointments with 30 bloggers but met many of the 500 attendees during a Glacier Country Tourism sponsored lunch. After TBEX, Lucy hosted a Fall in Western Montana FAM for seven travel bloggers: Jessica Elliot, Kita Roberts, Lia Garcia, Sarah Horcoff, Vanessa Chiasson, Albion Gould and Nathan Sado. In addition to the FAM, Glacier Country received ten other journalists in September, writing for such publications as Forbes and Lonely Planet. The earned media numbers for FY 2019 were finalized, totaling more than $3 million, from both traditional journalists (digital and print) and
digital influencers.

This quarter our Tourism Sales Manager, Debbie Picard, has been busy promoting Western Montana’s Glacier Country to meeting planners looking for a unique and authentic meeting destination. With the increase in both the number of airlines, direct-flight cities and larger capacity planes coming into Montana, timing has never been better for this market in Western Montana. In September, Debbie was the coordinator for the Montana booth at IMEX America in Las Vegas, the largest tradeshow in the U.S. for the meetings market. The Montana booth partners included Big Sky Resort, Bozeman CVB, Visit Helena (with Great Northern Hotel), The Ranch at Rock Creek, Sage Lodge and Western Montana’s Glacier Country with Destination Missoula and Explore Whitefish. The Montana booth had more than 75 appointments and additional walk-up traffic providing great exposure to the meetings market. Debbie also attended Small Market Meetings in Green Bay, Wisconsin in September, promoting the region as a meetings destination to planners who look for smaller cities. She also assisted Lucy in hosting a weeklong FAM tour through Western Montana following TBEX (Travel Blogger Exchange) held in Billings in September. This winter, she will be attending NTA Travel Exchange (National Tour Association) and ABA Marketplace (American Bus Association) promoting the region to the group tour/motorcoach market. After each show, Debbie’s trade show leads are available on the Partner Center for follow-up by Glacier Country Tourism 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.

Premium Online
Advertising Opportunities
Take Advantage of the GlacierMT.com Reach

More than 1.5 million unique visitors a year utilize glaciermt.com to assist in planning their vacations. Take advantage of fall travel traffic on our website and promote your business. Premium cooperative home page and landing page positions are available, and they showcase your business to a massive audience—including shoulder-season travelers.

Visit our new partner center at partners.glaciermt.com.

 

partners.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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