Travel, Tourism and Recreation: Crowds Flock To Montana During COVID Summer.

• Author: Sage, Jeremy
• Position: ASSESSING MONTANA'S KEY INDUSTRIES

At the onset of 2020, tourism indicators for Montana pointed to an expected good year, building on a steadily increasing volume of visitors and spending in the state since the great recession. Entering 2020, Montana's hoteliers and similar facilities had collected a nominally increasing lodging facility use tax (4% of lodging costs) year over year (Figure l). The COVID-19 pandemic changed these expectations and created a generally uncertain year for tourism dependent businesses.

As Montana was slow, in comparison with other states, to see an uptick in COVID-19 cases in the spring, the impacts and concerns were likewise slow, but arrived nonetheless. Cancellations crossed the spectrum of tourism-related businesses, from hotels to outfitters. During the first full quarter (April-June) of the pandemic, lodging facility use tax fell by 57% across the state. However, tax collections are not a direct correlation to visitors arriving to the state. On one hand the collections are impacted by changes in nightly lodging rates, which also fell during this time as demand declined. And on the other, it does not capture all visitor types coming to the state. As such, it represents only part of the story.

Tourism in Montana continues to be largely driven by the state's natural amenities, from national parks to state parks and other public lands, to the rivers, lakes and mountains throughout them all. The volume of visitation to these places represent another part of the story. As quarantines in Montana and across the West were lifted in late June and July, visitors flocked to these rural and amenity-rich locations. Yellowstone National Park experienced increased visitation over 2019 in every month from July to November; September and October set visitation records (Figure 2). Meanwhile, Glacier National Park total visitation remained down over 2019 throughout the summer, but received visitation spikes in October and November, with record volumes in both months (Figure 3). The eastern entrance to the park has remained closed throughout the year; meanwhile, the west gate to the park set record traffic counts every month from August to November. Thus, even though total visitation was down, those that did visit were...