Glacier Country’s Updates and Activities
Destination Marketing in the Time of COVID-19

Our communities and industry look a little different these days. Since March, Glacier Country Tourism has become quite nimble in our ability to listen, learn, assess and respond. Our comfort zone is to market the region as a destination to nonresident visitors—domestic and international. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, knowing that we were needed in other ways, we shifted gears and focused on helping our communities stay safe, healthy and informed. To visitors, our messaging centered around the idea of Love Now, Explore Later.

In June, with the phased reopening of the state, we changed our messaging to focus on our friends and neighbors across Montana—hoping to encourage them to move about and explore our great state—in our Montana Down the Road campaign. All of our placements emphasized traveling and recreating responsibly.

Today, many of our efforts hinge on balancing the health and safety of our communities with their economic vitality as we move forward to a time of full recovery. On-the-ground and national research shows people are visiting places they feel are safe, which, for many, are rural locations with wide-open spaces and lots of outdoor recreation. While many states in the West are seeing more visitation, Montana and Wyoming are leading the way in comparison to the rest of the country. Most travelers are taking short trips. Some are taking extended trips—integrating their ability to work and/or learn remotely with leisure travel. Our active promotions speak to people already in Montana and those who are currently planning a trip or rescheduling one they had to cancel or postpone. Traveling is not something everyone is 100% confident doing right now—nor might it be the right time to do it—but we are making sure Glacier Country remains top of mind when it is.

Glacier Country Tourism is working with the Montana Department of Commerce to implement “Montana Aware,” a campaign to promote travel safety awareness. We are assisting with the coordination of distributing safety messaging in our communities. The safety messaging includes several things, such as a toolkit of physical materials, news releases, social media posts, webpage copy, radio PSA templates and an image gallery for businesses and organizations to use and/or make available to your community.

Glacier Country Tourism has a complementary safety campaign, Safety First MT, which includes billboards, fuel station videos and social media videos with similar safety messaging across the eight counties of Glacier Country. The funding for this program is from the federal Montana CARES Act. It is not associated with lodging facility use tax in any way.

Lastly, Glacier Country Tourism’s board approved a new partnership structure, which was implemented this summer. With the goal to simplify and provide opportunity for all businesses to actively partner with us, we have created a new Basic Partnership level, allowing businesses to maintain an online presence on GlacierMT.com for free. This partnership level provides access to all our benefits at a la carte pricing. We also kept all of our most-valued benefits in a membership package now called a Signature Partnership, for a flat rate of $250 (formerly $180 and $280 depending on the number of employees). If you are an active partner of your local chamber, CVB, downtown or economic development association, your yearly rate is reduced to $200. We know how important it is to support our communities, and we hope this new structure will strengthen engagement between local business organizations and Glacier Country Tourism. In the long run, we are all working toward maintaining a healthy and vibrant community and economy together.

If you have questions for Racene Friede, President and CEO, she can be reached at racene@glaciermt.com or 406.532.3235.

Mark Your Calendar
Board Meetings


DEC

8

Dec 8, 2020
noon – 3 p.m.
Virtual

MAR

9

March 9, 2021
noon – 3 p.m.
TBD

MAY

11

May 11, 2021
noon – 3 p.m.
TBD

Our board meetings are open to the public, and we welcome attendance. During the COVID-19 crisis, meetings will be conducted in an online format using GoToMeeting. The public will have the opportunity to comment both during action-item discussions and under the Open Discussion/Public Comment section of the agenda. Virtual board meeting information will be posted on the Partner Center and Glacier Country Regional Tourism Commission Facebook page.

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
End-of-Year Numbers for FY 2020

Tablet-Friendly Guide Visits

74,791

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

183,529

Website Visits

1,594,892

Social Media Impressions

19,282,627

Paid Media Impressions

46,208,497

Earned Media Ad Value

$3,612,302

 

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

Public Relations and
Tourism Sales Update

Montana AwareAlong with the rest of the travel and tourism industry, Lucy Beighle had to pivot in her role as Public Relations and Earned Media Manager. Media events and media trips, typically a mainstay of a PR program, were either canceled or postponed. Face-to-face conferences, which involve a speed-networking component, were either canceled or re-worked to be online. Everything in the PR arena changed. But because of Lucy’s involvement in previous events and trips and the relationships forged there, Glacier Country Tourism was able to maintain a significant online presence through travel bloggers and influencers throughout the past two quarters.

Glacier Country’s PR program took a more local stance in the past two quarters by sharing with regional and state media our involvement in the Montana Aware campaign and our distribution of safety messaging and safety materials, and working with local media on stories regarding the impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry in Western Montana.

Moving forward, Lucy continues to participate in webinars and virtual meetings with other DMOs and travel journalists. Glacier Country Tourism will begin to host bloggers, journalists and influencers this fall with the prevailing message being recreating and enjoying Western Montana safely. For more information about our PR and earned media, email Lucy at lucy@glaciermt.com.

In these unprecedented times affecting travel and tourism around the world, our Tourism Sales Manager, Debbie Picard, has had to be nimble since March working with her different market segments, which include meetings and conventions, group and international travel. Her last in-person show was held in January when she attended ABA Marketplace (domestic group tour). Recently, she attended Go West Summit (receptive and international tour operators) held virtually the first week of September. Glacier Country Tourism is analyzing our participation at each trade show for the remainder of FY21 on a case-by-case basis. After each trade show, Debbie’s B2B leads are available on the Partner Center for follow-up by Glacier Country Tourism partners.

The big question is when will all of these markets return to Western Montana? Key indicators show that after leisure travel the domestic group tour market will be the first to return. Many tour operators are running tours this fall and planning tours for next spring and know there is a pent-up demand for travel from their clients. The international market will be back when the borders open up, travel restrictions are rescinded, and travel confidence and flights are restored. Our representatives in our seven key international markets tell us that visitors are asking for rural destinations and soft adventure where nature and fresh air abound, leaving larger cities for a later visit. The meetings and convention market will return, but with hybrid, virtual offerings included until confidence in holding meetings in person is restored. Any questions about these markets can be sent to debbie@glaciermt.com.

Glacier Country Travel Guide

Interest in Glacier Country remains strong, and preparations are underway for our 2021 – 2022 travel guide—the premier source of information for attractions, events, community descriptions, culture, lodging, dining, entertainment, transportation, shopping and visitor services in Western Montana. Both partnership levels—Basic and Signature—allow businesses the opportunity to advertise in the travel guide on a first-come, first-served basis with the option to bundle travel guide advertising with premium advertising placement on glaciermt.com. This is a terrific audience for your business because travelers are using the guide as a planning tool before they visit. For more information about advertising, email Tia Metzger at tia@windfallstudio.com.

Visit our Partner Center at partners.glaciermt.com.

partners.glaciermt.com

Disclaimer
© 2020 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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