Local economy benefits from neighbors to the north

The number of Alberta license plates in retail, hotel and restaurant parking lots tells the story at a glance. Canadians are spending time and money in the Flathead this winter, and they’re coming in droves.

With the Canadian dollar holding its own — the loonie was $1.03 against the U.S. dollar just over a week ago — Canadians are spending money here on everything from cars and real estate to skiing trips and medical procedures.

“We’ve had a tremendous amount of Canadian business,” said Fabienne Averill, sales manager and an owner of The Lodge at Whitefish Lake. “We just had our first Canadian corporate bus come down and it was exactly like old times. To see that coming back is encouraging.”

In the first two months of 2011, 25 percent of The Lodge’s total room revenue came from Canadians. Last year Canadian visits accounted for roughly 10 percent of room revenue.

The Lodge has begun marketing its upscale facility directly to Canadians, Averill said. For example, when the hotel promoted a special teacher appreciation weekend with discounted rates, The Lodge contacted schools in Lethbridge and Calgary, Alberta, and got a wonderful response from Canadian teachers.

“We’ve taken the Canadian holiday schedule and merged it with ours,” Averill said. “We’re treating [those holidays] as if they’re our own.”

Averill travels to Canada to promote the resort hotel at a fall ski show and spring golf expo and also makes direct sales calls to oil companies and other potential clients.

“Inevitably, they all know about Whitefish,” she said.

Canadians also know about shopping — and they do a lot of it here.

David Fox, store manager of JCPenney in Kalispell Center Mall, estimated 35 percent of the store’s business in the week following Canada’s Family Day on Feb. 21 was from Canadian shoppers.

“It was very strong for us,” Fox said, adding that typically the store will see an uptick in business on weekends that can be attributed to Canadian traffic.

“Our prices are competitive and better than in Canada,” he said. “They’ve adopted this area as a place they come to shop.”

Canadian visitorship in Montana has been strong in recent years, according to the Canadian Consulate in Denver, which tracks that data. In 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 583,000 Canadians visited Montana and contributed $150 million to the state economy. That compares to 531,100 Canadian visits to Montana in 2006, one of the busiest years for Canadian visits in recent years.

Montanans haven’t reciprocated nearly as well.

In 2006 before the national recession hit, a total of 114,800 Montanans visited Canada, spending $440 million. Last year, still stung by the economic downturn, Montanans tallied only 94,800 visits to Canada and spent $33 million.

The consistency of Canadian visitors to the Flathead has led the Whitefish and Kalispell convention and visitor bureaus to recently embark on a plan to help local businesses break down any barriers to commerce.

It’s really an exercise in “how to be more Canadian-friendly,” said Jan Metzmaker, director of the Whitefish Convention and Visitor Bureau.

She sent out a survey to bureau members last week, asking for input on any difficulties businesses are having in dealing with Canadian currency or debit cards. The survey also asked business owners to rank how important Canadian visitors are “and from the initial responses it’s very important,” she said.

Diane Medler, director of the Kalispell Convention and Visitor Bureau, said she will send out the surveys this week to gauge businesses’ interest in Canadian tourism. She also plans to do more direct promotions in Lethbridge and other areas of Alberta.

The two visitor bureaus, along with Montana West Economic Development, are working to arrange a local workshop in April with University of Lethbridge economics professor Donna Townley, who spends time in Whitefish and would give advice about how to enhance the Flathead experience for Canadian visitors.

Metzmaker said she has seen a recent upswing in visitors from the Saskatoon area of Saskatchewan — an increase that’s being driven by reasonably priced ski lift tickets. While lift tickets in Banff, for example, are well in excess of $100 a day, Canadians can buy Whitefish Mountain Resort ticket bundles at Costco for about $50 each, she said.

“We’re seeing a lot of East Coast people here, too, because of the oil sands industry,” Metzmaker said.

With growing production from the oil sands, the Canadian Energy Research Institute estimates the value of bitumen and synthetic crude oil produced over the 2000 to 2020 period could total over $500 billion. The institute has further estimated that oil sands and oil sands-related activities together could contribute about $789 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product during that time.

Tourism promoters are hoping their efforts will allow a share of that wealth to trickle down to the Flathead Valley.

“Canadians know this place,” Metzmaker said. “It’s a good value for them.”

Whitefish Mountain Resort spokesman Donnie Clapp reiterated the trend other businesses saw during the week following Canada’s Family Day and the U.S.’s Presidents Day.

“This year for the first time, lodging reservations for midweek after Presidents Day weekend were as strong as reservations for Presidents Day weekend,” he said. “That’s a pretty exciting trend.”

Selling lift ticket packages through Costco has been very successful in terms of volume, Clapp said. He said he’s also seeing Canadians from farther away traveling to Whitefish, adding the resort gets a fair number of skiers from Edmonton.

In addition to skiing, many Canadians are looking for real estate deals while they’re here, RE/MAX Realtor Joe Basirico said.

“They’re bargain hunters, and they’re buying when they find what they want,” he said. “There’s no question they’re picking up some really good deals.”

Basirico said both high- and lower-end properties are selling to Canadians.

Canadians are heading to the Flathead’s car dealerships, too, to find good deals.

At Green Nissan and Mountain Auto & Marine, general manager Larry Symmes estimated 50 percent of used boat sales are to Canadians. And sales manager Jamie Creasey said Canadians save $10,000 to $15,000 on higher-end vehicles by buying across the border.

Given the Flathead’s economic struggles the past couple of years, the “consistently strong” Canadian traffic has helped many businesses weather the storm, Kalispell Chamber of Commerce President Joe Unterreiner said.

“It’s been a bright spot,” he said. “And it’s definitely an area of focus for tourism.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.