The number of tourists coming to Montana has remained the same for the past two years, but the amount they spent here fell slightly last year.
About 12.5 million people visited Montana in both 2022 and 2023. Last year, those tourists spent a total of about $5.45 billion, down from the $5.82 billion they spent in 2022
That’s according to the latest estimates of foreign visitation, spending, and tourist economic contribution from the University of Montana’s Tourism and Recreation Research Institute. Every year, Institute staff are spread across the state surveying tourists to find out what they’re spending money on while they’re here.
“Our team has been hard at work behind the scenes analyzing our 2023 data,” said Kara Grau, assistant director of economic analysis at the Institute, in the email she sent with the report.
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The institute surveyed about 10,000 non-residents and 18,000 residents.
About 69 percent of Montanans believe the overall benefits of tourism outweigh the negative impacts, according to the survey.
According to the data, tourists spent $1.4 billion on food and beverages, $1.1 billion on accommodation, $1.6 billion on transportation, $600 million on shopping and $500 million on furnishings and guides last year.
The institute estimates that tourism spending reduces the average tax burden for each Montana household by $930 per year. Tourism businesses send about $414 million to state and local governments in tax revenue, and the tourism industry supports more than 48,000 jobs in Montana.
Yellowstone National Park, which is mostly in Wyoming but has entrances in Montana, saw about 4.5 million visitors. Glacier National Park saw 2.93 million visitors, and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument welcomed 227,000 guests.
About 48% of all visitors came in the third quarter of last year, which is from July to September. The average travel group size was 2.3 people and tourists spent an average of five nights here.
In terms of total inflation-adjusted spending, tourist spending in 2023 is down about 9.3% from 2022. This reverses a trend that has been occurring since the end of the pandemic. From 2020 to 2021, tourist spending jumped 53.3% as people returned to travel after COVID. Then, from 2021 to 2022, tourist spending jumped 6.1%.
In Montana, about 90% of tourists come from elsewhere in the US, while 8% come from Canada and 2% come from other countries.
There were about 176,000 international travelers who arrived through Missoula Montana Airport and they spent a total of about $221.4 million. There were about 607,000 tourists who flew through Bozeman and spent about $769.4 million. About 259,000 tourists arrived at the Kalispell airport and spent $294.9 million.
The release of the report coincided with the 2024 Montana Governor’s Conference on Tourism, held April 14-16 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula.
Hundreds of visitors from across the state are here to talk about everything from the importance of agriculture to tourism to changes in social media usage.
Racene Friede, president and CEO of Glacier Country in Western Montana, said her organization worked with other nonprofits in the state to create a new website called Glaciers to Geysers to promote all that Montana can to suggest. The goal was to give people ideas of what to do when traveling between Glacier National Park and Yellowstone.
“We took a little different approach,” Friede said. “It was all about niche markets. And we started with I Believe It Was a Snowmobile and (added) museums and hot springs and winter sports and motorcycling. But this is a whole independent site, it is supported by paid advertising, in which we invest and drive traffic to the site to sell. But it also builds tourism. It’s been an exciting project and we’ve had 538,000 users in the last 12 months.”
The tourism conference is open to registered guests. For more information, visit Brand.mt.gov/Events/Governors-Conference/.
David Erickson is the Missoulian’s business reporter.
