Glacier Country Expeditions

Glacier Country Tourism Warm Season Campaign
Treasure It. Recreate Responsibly.

Glacier Country Tourism launched national and in-state campaigns this spring. Both campaigns focus on responsible recreation and respectful travel. Montana is a state of adventure and, first and foremost, a state to treasure. Our Treasure It campaign plays off our love for the Treasure State and encourages all to plan ahead, play it safe and be prepared; be respectful, be kind and be patient. Our national campaign has two main target audiences. The first is those actively planning a vacation to Western Montana, and we are educating that audience on what to expect and encouraging shoulder season trips and dispersal outside the park. The second audience is our low-impact traveler with a sustainability focus and prior trips to Montana and our state parks. Our in-state campaign encourages Montanans to discover more of their home state while still following recreate responsibly principles.

Destination Stewardship Updates

As Glacier Country Tourism nears the completion of our destination stewardship strategic planning process, we have taken stock of what we have learned so far and started to expand existing programs and create new ones for both the FY 2022 and FY 2023 budget years.

FY 2022: Includes an expansion of the VIC staffing grant program by doubling the funding available for each eligible organization; a new community event marketing assistance program; and a new online learning management system to host past and current trainings, summit sessions and workshops. Additionally, FY 2022 marked the launch of a destination operating system called Zartico, allowing Glacier Country Tourism to track and visualize important data and gain clarity on strategic goals. Zartico helps create alignment within the organization and, most importantly, with our communities regionwide—combining hard and soft data to uncover destination intelligence and insights allowing Glacier Country Tourism to steward and elevate the visitor economy of our communities.

FY 2023: Glacier Country Tourism is excited about everything we have learned from residents across the region. We don’t want to lose momentum, so we’re laying the groundwork for the development of a Community Outreach Program to ensure our ability to immediately implement the stewardship plan with staffing, program funding and community project funding.

Be on the lookout for more information on these programs via our newsletters, eblasts and our Glacier Country Regional Tourism Commission Facebook page, @GlacierCountryRegionalTourism, and partner Facebook group.

Mark Your Calendar
Board Meetings


MAY

10

May 10, 2022
Noon — 3 p.m.
Missoula Montana Airport

OCT

11

October 11, 2022
Noon — 3 p.m.
Virtual

DEC

13

December 13, 2022
Noon — 3 p.m.
Virtual

Our board meetings are open to the
public, and we welcome attendance.
Meetings in May and October are in
person, and meetings in December
and March are 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
FY 2022 through February 2022

Tablet-Friendly Guide Visits

54,610

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

142,713

Website Visits

1,451,732

Social Media Impressions

22,956,851

Paid Media Impressions

29,718,831

Earned Media Ad Value

$2,153,357

 

Need travel guides? Call Kristi McNeal, Glacier Country Tourism's director of operations and accounting, at 406.532.3234.

Tourism Sales
and Public Relations Update

The group tour market is once again gaining momentum after interruption from the pandemic. Our team recently attended ABA Marketplace in Fort Worth, Texas, and met with a variety of group tour operators looking for unique outdoor destinations, attractions and culinary experiences that can provide their clients with an unforgettable bucket-list experience. We are excited to announce that Aerionna Skrutvold will be taking over the promotion and management of the domestic group tour market. For Glacier Country Tourism business partners who are interested in working with group tours, it can be a great way to diversify your customer base, especially in economically challenging times or when trying to increase late spring and early fall shoulder season business. Leads can be found here.

Glacier Country Tourism’s director of sales, Debbie Picard, attended Go West Summit in Reno, Nevada, in February and saw a marked increase of interest in itineraries to the Great American West for international visitors. There is pent-up demand for travel, and rural, less-populated areas are seeing the most interest. However, the invasion of Ukraine is now weighing on Europeans and whether to make holiday plans closer to home instead of a long-haul destination like the United States.

Destination wedding inquiries for this summer are up and the meetings and convention market saw significant growth in RFP requests for Western Montana over the past quarter with a trend for short booking windows for this summer and fall. Glacier Country Tourism partners who would like to promote your business specifically to the meetings, group and international tour markets via our B2B Blog, b2b.glaciermt.com, let us know at debbie@glaciermt.com.

Glacier Country Tourism’s director of communications, Lucy Guthrie, continues to focus on both in-region as well as out-of-state earned media this quarter. She attended the annual International Media Marketing (IMM) event in New York City in January and will be attending Travel Bloggers Exchange (TBEX) in April in Tri-Cities Washington as well as the Destinations International Marketing and Communications Conference in April.

Glacier Country Tourism was in the news this quarter in the Wall Street Journal, “Renting a Car for Vacation;” Chilled, “Six Steps to Sustainability with Distiller Lauren Oscilowski;” Conde Naste Traveler, “The Best Cabins, Hotels and Dude Ranches Near Glacier National Park;” Smart Meetings, “Mountain Meetings Deliver Peak Results;” Northwest Travel and Life, “New Traditions, Holiday Getaways;” 365 Atlanta Traveler, “19 Amazing Things to Do in Missoula, Montana;” and NTA Courier, “Tips from the Pros: Overcoming the Worst…Together.”

Blogger TravelingMel/Melynda Harrison (Instagram @TravelingMelMT) also came for a five-day Winter Wisely trip in January that showcased all the fabulous outdoor recreation opportunities in Western Montana while focusing on Recreate Responsibly and Leave No Trace principles and messaging.

Partners interested in hosting media or showcasing their business can reach out to Lucy at lucy@glaciermt.com for potential inclusion in a FAM or media trip.

Event Promotion Opportunities

Promote your event to 1.6 million visitors on glaciermt.com with our free and paid opportunities.

  • Submit your event to our events calendar here.
  • Feature your event at the top of our events page for $75 per month.
  • Run your event banner ads on glaciermt.com for $100 per month.
  • Learn about our NEW Community Event Marketing Assistance Program and APPLY here.

Contact Annie Mead, Partnership Sales Specialist, at annie@windfallstudio.com.

Visit our Partner Center at partners.glaciermt.com.

partners.glaciermt.com

Disclaimer
© 2022 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-appointed 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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