BILLINGS — A marketing official says President Donald Trump’s campaign stop last week in Montana boosted the Billings local economy much more than any public costs associated with the visit.
The Billings Gazette reports that MetraPark marketing and sales manager Ray Massie told Yellowstone County commissioners Tuesday that the rally pumped money into local hotels, restaurants, gasoline stations and related businesses.
Massie says if 1,500 rally attendees were from outside the area and each spent $150 on accommodations, meals, fuel and other costs, that’s a $225,000 bump for the local tourism economy.
Massie says that is more than 10 times what the Billings Police Department said it expected to pay at minimum for off-duty officers to supplement the work of the Secret Service.