Visitors crowded the resort town of Whitefish from Christmas through Jan. 3, and lodging properties report robust business despite disruptions to cell phone service, a power outage and heavy snowfall.
Although resort tax numbers are not yet in, both the Whitefish Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce say occupancy rates were at or near 100 percent through much of the holidays, fueling the hospitality industry in Whitefish’s downtown district while funneling record crowds to Whitefish Mountain Resort’s Big Mountain.
It’s not clear what caused the cell phone disruption in Whitefish on New Year’s Eve, but the lull in service rippled through downtown as visitors struggled to communicate plans.
“It was wall-to-wall downtown inside and outside of businesses, and obviously with the dependence that people have on their electronic devices it probably put a cramp in some folks’ evening plans,” said Kevin Gartland, president of the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce.
On Jan. 3, a power outage in Whitefish left area businesses in the dark, and while some chose to remain open through the blackout they were unable to accept credit and debit cards.
According to Flathead Electric Cooperative spokesperson Wendy Ostrom-Price a blown transformer at the Whitefish substation caused the outage shortly after 7:30 p.m. She said at the peak of the outage more than 6,300 customers were left in the dark. Power was restored across Whitefish by the early morning hours of Jan. 4. She said it’s unclear what caused the transformer to break but that it was replaced the following day.
Gartland said the Whitefish tourist industry’s dependence on Mother Nature to deliver plenty of powder for skiers and snowboarders is sometimes a double-edged sword, and although some businesses surely took a hit, the outage was resolved after several hours.
“We depend on winter to make our business, and sometimes when it snows like this we lose a little business,” Gartland said. “The power outage the other day is going to have an effect because it shuts things down. It makes it very difficult to do business, especially in the hospitality industry, and it put a damper on a lot of folks’ evening.”