The Reynolds Creek Fire in Glacier National Park has had the local tourism industry on edge, for good reason. When even part of Going-to-the-Sun Road is shut down, it is potentially bad for business. But, anymore, it takes more than a fire to deter tourists from Northwest Montana during summer.
The crowds continued to arrive. You see them traveling up and down U.S. 93; and overflowing public lake accesses; and waiting in abnormally long lines to be seated at a restaurant. More than once, I’ve heard, “There are people everywhere.” And there are.
Despite a fire that temporarily closed part of the most traveled road in our most famous park, people came anyway. Glacier reported last week that 689,064 visitors entered the park in July, the third most on record, and the park is still well ahead of record pace for total visitation, a record it set just last year.
Our state parks also continue to attract record numbers, tallying the most last year when more than 2.25 million visited statewide. Wayfarers State Park in Bigfork by itself saw 133,473 visitors. That overall record, too, is expected to fall this year.
Glacier Park International Airport reported that its July numbers were the biggest ever. That month, 36,079 revenue passengers boarded in Kalispell, about 1,000 more than the same month in 2014. GPIA continues to explore adding more direct flights.
Those arriving to the state are spending a lot of money, at least they were last year, when the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana estimated the total at nearly $4 billion. And among all counties in the state, Flathead attracted the most dollars, estimated at $668 million in 2014. Unless a far greater number of tourists are spending far less money this year, I would expect this year’s total to eclipse last year’s.
Along with hard numbers, there’s the anecdotal evidence of a busy summer. Businesses in the service and tourism industry have reported struggling to find staffers. Help wanted signs are everywhere.
Where to house the increasing number of tourists is already being addressed. In Whitefish, construction has begun on two additional hotels. Near downtown, an 89-room boutique hotel is being built. On that town’s south entrance, a Hampton Inn & Suites is rising. Meanwhile, in Kalispell, construction on a Marriot Springhill Suites is expected to begin this fall and slated to open in 2016.
The real estate and construction sectors have bounced back from the depths of the recession. During the first half of the year, home sales were up about 15 percent compared to 2014 as the market approaches historic levels.
People are everywhere, and they need a place to stay and some of them aren’t leaving. Along with increased tourism, Flathead County is in the midst of a boomlet as its population, through transplants and record births, is increasing at its fastest rate in years. In 2014, the number of residents increased by 1,800, the most since 2008.
It’s impossible to overstate how far the county has come since early 2011, when the jobless rate hit a record-breaking 14.1 percent and our population stagnated. Now we face the opposite problem. At least we’re riding this boomlet with lessons from the last one still visible in the rearview mirror.