- About
- Plans + Programs
- Partnership
- Outreach
- Destination Stewardship
- News + Events
- GlacierMT.com
- Login
As of January 3, 2025
This detailed visitor trend report explores the behaviors, origins and economic contributions of visitors to the Glacier Country region throughout 2024. In this data, a visitor is defined as someone traveling to the Glacier Country region from other areas of Montana and the U.S. These insights help stakeholders understand tourism dynamics and plan strategically for future growth.
Where are visitors to the Glacier Country region from?
This image provides a breakdown of visitor origins (size of the bubble) and the average visitor spend (color shade of the bubble), showing how many travelers come from within Montana and from other states. The data underscores the regional and national appeal of Glacier Country as a destination.
Here's a breakdown of visitor origins by DMA® (Designated Market Area). DMA regions are the geographic areas in the U.S. in which local television viewing is measured by Nielsen. The Missoula, Montana, DMA includes the counties of Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Sanders, Mineral, Missoula, and Ravalli – not Glacier. The other locations represent the larger DMA region around that location as defined by Nielsen.
Economic Contributions of Visitors
This chart provides a comprehensive look at how much visitors are contributing to the local economy, detailing the financial benefits of tourism to the Glacier Country region.
Categories of Visitor Spending
This is a breakdown of where visitors are allocating their spending, from accommodations and dining to retail and recreational activities. This helps identify the areas benefiting most from tourism dollars. Note: “Financial” includes ATM transactions.
Average Visitor Spending by County
This data highlights the average expenditures by visitors in each county, emphasizing areas where tourism has a significant economic impact.
Visitor Distribution by County
This map showcases the geographic dispersion of visitors across the counties in Glacier Country, offering insights into the most frequented areas and their visitor spend—identifying regions with potential for growth.
Resident Versus Visitor Percentages by Month
A comparison of the percentage of visitors to residents each month, illustrating how tourism interacts with local populations and highlighting the times when visitors have a larger physical presence.
Now that we've shifted from fall to winter, it’s time to reflect on the travelers who experienced Glacier Country during the summer season. From June through August, Glacier Country welcomed visitors from near and far, eager to explore the breathtaking landscapes of our region, which spans Flathead, Glacier, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral, Missoula, Ravalli and Sanders counties. Here’s a closer look at where our summer visitors came from and the trends that shaped their travel to Western Montana this year.
Trend data for June through September this year indicate the visitor-to-resident ratio was a little higher than 2023. The majority of visitors were from a 600-mile radius, with 28.8% being residents enjoying our own backyard, 15.8% from Washington, 4.3% from Colorado, 3.7% from Utah and 2.7% from Oregon. The group with the highest average visitor spend was our fellow Montana residents from outside the Glacier Country region ($342/day). The overall average national visitor spending was $195.25/person per day for the months of June – September, down from $204.75 in 2023. Overall lodging occupancy (hotel and short-term rental) was about flat, along with the average daily rate (ADR). The booking window for reservations increased by 10%, and the average length of stay held steady at 2 days for hotels and 3.5 days for short-term rentals. This trend data is not absolute but provides a glimpse into what is happening on the ground. We always measure what this data says against what data from the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research says in their year-over-year reporting, which will be available in 2025.
Overall, the story we have at this time is that visitation in Western Montana has leveled out compared to the huge fluctuations since 2020. Glacier Country is a large region, and this data is for the region at-large. We are very interested in what you saw in your community and encourage you to reach out and share your thoughts. Email Racene Friede at racene@glaciermt.com.
| Visitor DMA* Market Area | % Visitors | % Visitor Spend | Avg. Visitor Spend |
| Missoula MT (Glacier Country Region) | 13.1% | 6.3% | $222 |
| Spokane WA | 9.2% | 6.8% | $222 |
| Seattle-Tacoma WA | 6.6% | 5.2% | $219 |
| Butte-Bozeman MT | 4.9% | 4.9% | $319 |
| Great Falls MT | 4.4% | 4.9% | $373 |
| Denver CO | 4.3% | 2.1% | $235 |
| Salt Lake City UT | 3.7% | 2.5% | $215 |
| Billings MT | 3.4% | 3.0% | $374 |
| Helena MT | 3.0% | 2.2% | $302 |
| Portland OR | 2.7% | 2.9% | $211 |
Top Origin Markets - In-State and Out-of-State
Year-Over-Year Trend Data (same period) June – September
Lodging Occupancy (Year-Over-Year Trend Data – same period) Hotel vs. Short-Term Rental (VR)
If you think travel trends fluctuate month to month or even week to week, you are probably right. The conversations we are having with businesses in Western Montana and statewide are inconsistent and vary community by community. To understand what is happening in-state, we need to understand the national trends.
According to the U.S. Travel Association Travel Insights Dashboard for the month of May 2024. All indicators show a consistent rate of growth year to date vs. the previous year, including overseas travel.
The domestic travel forecast remains strong, with domestic leisure spending keeping pace and domestic business travel spending continuing to recover—but a full recovery is still not forecast for at least a few more years.
Western Montana’s Glacier Country continues to monitor travel trends and share those insights.
Research and data analyses are integral to the strategic operations of Western Montana’s Glacier Country. By closely examining trends and visitor behavior, we gain valuable insights that inform our messaging, target audience and media planning, and using this data allows us to be strategic for our 2024 spring campaign.
In this article, we delve into key data sources and highlight significant findings for the region.
Quarter 3 of this fiscal year (January – March 2024) has seen some shifts in visitation, with much higher numbers of people from our drive market (Montana, Idaho, Washington) and less from those beyond. The following is a selection of trend data for the entire Glacier Country region.
Note: In our data, a visitor comes from more than 50 miles away, spends 2+ hours within the defined destination boundary, and is observed at a defined place of impact. The visitor-to-resident ratio shows the volume of visitors compared to the volume of residents. The higher the number, the more visitors compared to residents.
From a record year in 2022, we have seen a decrease in visitors to our region, mainly in the warm season months. Q3 started strong at 0.47 but fell to 0.28 in March for an overall increase of 1%. Average visitor spending decreased from $260 to $251 for a decrease of 3%. See the chart below.
Visitors were here for outdoor recreation and sports, staying at accommodations, shopping and eating. See the chart below.
The highest share of visitor spending was on food, followed by retail, accommodations, fuel and attractions. See the chart below.
The people who stayed at accommodation businesses were from the Billings, Seattle-Tacoma, Spokane, Portland and Butte-Bozeman areas. See the chart below.
The people who spent the most were from Great Falls ($333), Butte-Bozeman ($262), Spokane ($232), Missoula (this refers to the Glacier Country region) ($178) and Billings ($203). See the charts below.
A final trend report will show the total paid occupancy for vacation rental properties in the Glacier Country region compared to Yellowstone Country, Teton/Jackson, and Coeur d’Alene. This graph reflects similar reports of decreased hotel occupancy in our more urban communities and can be related to overall low snow levels across our region. See the chart below.
