Tourist count up, spending down in Montana

The number of visitors to Montana last year increased by 8 percent over 2014 while their spending dropped 8 percent.

According to the University of Montana Institute for Tourism and Recreation, 11.7 million nonresidents visited Montana in 2015 while spending about $3.6 billion.

Kara Grau, assistant director of the Institute, said the paradox of more people and less spending seems to reflect lower gas prices that allow people to travel more often while possibly returning more frequently for less expensive trips.

“Montana is such a big state that driving is a big part of it for travelers,” Grau said. “They’re spending less money on fuel than they have in several years.”

Nonresidents spent 32 percent less on gas in 2015 than in 2014, although fuel still ranks as top expense, accounting for $792.5 million (22 percent) of nonresident spending. Restaurants and bars accounted for second most in spending with $660.2 million (18 percent). While fuel prices in Montana never reached above $2.90 in 2015, the price per gallon topped out around $3.70 during the summer of 2014, according to www.montanagasprices.com.

Simultaneously, the value of the Canadian dollar continues to fall, contributing to less spending by the consumer base that often travels south for better deals and typically accounts for about 14 percent of nonresident spending. Grau said the institute hasn’t yet computed the Canadian spending number for 2015.

“That’s definitely played into it,” Grau said of the Canadian downturn. “It’s too early to nail down how much effect that’s had on overall spending but we’re definitely hearing it from people involved in the tourism industry.”

While spending last year didn’t surpass 2014 spending, 59 percent of tourism-related businesses surveyed by the Institute said they saw an increase in visitation or customers in 2015.

Grau said common themes explaining the increase included increased visitation to national parks (both Glacier and Yellowstone national parks set all-time visitation records in 2015); improvements to or expansion of businesses; improved marketing schemes; receiving a high number of returning customers; and the fact that so many businesses surveyed where relatively new, meaning they expect growth to happen after the initial start-up years.

“Those are the reasons given to explain the increase in visitation for 2015, but I suspect those very same reasons are why those tourism-related businesses are expecting an increase in 2016,” Grau said. Of the businesses surveyed, 61 percent said they expect to see an increase this year.

During 2015, nonresidents supported more than 37,000 jobs directly and 52,750 jobs in total. According to the report, nonresidents chipped in $208 million in state and local taxes last year.

Grau said while these estimates are preliminary, the institute expects to have hard numbers on Canadian spending by May and county-specific data around July.

For more information, visit www.itrr.umt.edu.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.