Destination Stewardship
Moving Forward

After more than a year of community engagement, meetings, feedback and research, Glacier Country Tourism is thrilled to present the final and approved version of our Destination Stewardship Plan. With this, we are also happy to announce we have hired a new director of community engagement and destination stewardship, Jenna Boltz. Jenna will be responsible for implementing the destination stewardship strategy (a 10-year plan for the destination to build upon resident quality of life and the visitor experience) through project management of our strategic initiatives. This includes developing and maintaining strong relationships with the organization’s strategic partners (communities, tourism partners, government and tribal agencies, chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, etc.) to execute action plans and deliver on key milestones and goals.

Tourism Sales and
Public Relations

Our director of sales attended Connect PNW in Boise and Destination West in Tucson. Missoula is hosting 30 domestic tour operators at Northwest USA Spotlight in April. Register here. To promote your business to the meetings, group and international tour markets, email debbie@glaciermt.com. Destination weddings and international visits are on the rise; we are highlighting shoulder season availability for these groups. Our director of communications hosted a journalist from Ireland and an influencer from Canada. She also attended IMM in NYC. For hosting media, email lucy@glaciermt.com. The IMAX series “Jane Goodall’s Reasons for Hope,” featuring Browning, premieres in March.

Warm Season
Advertising Positions

With winter underway, we're looking ahead to spring and summer. We still have a few warm season cooperatives and premium ad positions available for partners. More than 2 million unique visitors a year utilize glaciermt.com to assist in planning their vacations. Expose your business to travelers by taking advantage of our site's high traffic. With the warmer seasons approaching, you have the chance to advertise on our summer landing page or on our main home page for front-and-center exposure. Don't pass up these valuable opportunities to maximize visibility during our busiest time of year! For more information or to secure a placement email Annie Mead at annie@windfallstudio.com.

RESEARCH + TRENDS

Looking back on 2022, visitation has leveled out compared to 2020 and 2021. The third and fourth quarters of 2022 saw a small decrease in occupancy for both hotels and short-term rentals, with hotels down 2% to 3% and short-term rentals down 1% to 2%. Interestingly, while we have fewer visitors, average daily spending increased by roughly $17—not surprising with overall higher cost of goods and services. We believe this trend shows a market correction occurring.