Montana Tourism Data Available To General Public

The University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research collects and reports nonresident visitor data. This data, typically accessed by businesses, tourism promoters, land managers and policymakers, is now available to the general public in a new format.

As part of a public service to the state, anyone interested can log on to the ITRR website at http://www.tourismresearchmt.org/ to find answers to nonresident travel questions, including who is coming to Montana, why they come here, and what they do while here. Users also can generate trend graphs using various data compiled from two to three decades of information, from airport deboardings and attitudes toward tourism to expenditures by nonresidents.

"This new functionality allows us to upload new data as quickly as possible so everyone can benefit from the information," said Norma Nickerson, ITTR director. "In the past, we collected nonresident data once every five years and used that as our data set. Now, we hope to be only six months away from providing recently collected information. In this day and age, we can’t assume that 5-year-old data is still appropriate for decision-making. With this interactive website, people don’t have to wait for us to generate the reports. They can do it quickly themselves."

Starting this month, small, locally owned accommodations such as motels, bed and breakfasts, campgrounds, guest ranches, vacation home and cabin rentals will be able to participate by providing their occupancy data through a secure and anonymous portal. Individual business-owner data will be combined with all others to provide occupancy trends for the year.

Tourism is a large and growing industry in Montana. In 2010 the combined economic impact of nonresident visitors to Montana exceeded $2.6 billion. According to ITTR, the research helps state tourism officials and business owners better understand their target audiences and create more specific marketing strategies. It helps land managers know their clientele and is used by banks to decide the risk level of new business loans.