Summer Travel Season 2022
Visitation in Numbers

If this summer felt a little less busy compared to last summer, that’s because it was. The level of visitation in our region during the summers of 2020 and 2021 was overwhelming with the influx of domestic visitors seeking to escape the pandemic in search of destinations with wide-open spaces, low population densities and plenty of outdoor recreation. One might think all that new money being spent in our communities was a great thing, but with it came a tremendous amount of stress on most communities where the number of visitors was beyond capacity. That level of visitation was unsustainable. The market had to correct, but when? Our answer came in late May 2022 as we started to see slow bookings and less traffic on the roads. Take a look at the numbers and read more here.

Tourism Sales and
Public Relations

Glacier Country Tourism's Director of
Communications, Lucy Guthrie, hosted a number of journalists and influencers this past quarter. At the end of September, a Jane Goodall IMAX series, “Jane Goodall’s Reasons for Hope,” was filmed in Browning, and we are one of the sponsors. Missoula has been selected as the destination for the 2023 Northwest USA Spotlight conference April 16 – 18. This is an intimate regional trade show that showcases the area to operators and offers many networking opportunities. Learn more and register now—space is limited! In the meetings and conventions market, we attended a Meetings Today LIVE event in Denver and met with planners looking for venues in the Rocky Mountain West.

Advertising in the
GC Travel Guide

Preparations are underway for our 2023 – 2024 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 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 Annie Mead, partnership specialist for Glacier Country Tourism, at annie@windfallstudio.com.

RESEARCH + TRENDS

Going-to-the-Sun Road

Glacier Country visitor-to-resident ratio rose from 1.27 to 1.62 after the Going-to-the-Sun Road opened in its entirety.

Glacier Park Visitor Makeup

Glacier National Park visitor-to-resident makeup YTD 2022: 22% resident to 78% visitor.

Griz Game Visitation

Washington Grizzly Stadium visitor-to-resident makeup first two home football games: 66% resident to 34% visitor.