Tourism Trends In Eastern Montana Show Resilience, Opportunity

Montana’s tourism industry heavily favors the western half of the state, anchored by mountainous gateway communities surrounding Glacier and Yellowstone national parks. But while many travelers to Montana pass through huge swaths of the state en route to myriad destinations, there has been a data gap in understanding the impact of the tourism industry to the eastern half of Montana.

A new study published by the University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research starts filling in that gap, with a five-year look at county and regional-level visitation statistics that created a detailed picture of how out-of-state visitors interact and experience with eastern communities.

The comprehensive report, published this week, showed that from 2018 to 2023, drivethrough visitation in eastern Montana rose by just 3 percent, but lodging tax revenue increased by 44 percent and nonresident spending more than doubled to $1.1 billion.

The study compares visitor trends in 2018 and 2023, following a state-sponsored push to boost tourism and economic development in the region, and shows communities within the state’s 23 eastern counties saw huge increases in visitors and nonresident spending.

Historical sites, such as Pompeys Pillar and Little Bighorn Battlefield, and recreation destinations including Fort Peck Lake and state parks, emerged as top attractions in a portion of the state bereft of national-profile destinations.

“As new efforts are introduced to showcase a broader range of visitor opportunities — highlighting Montana’s diverse attractions, including its historical, cultural and natural treasures beyond the iconic national parks — this report illustrates how visitor patterns and spending in eastern Montana are evolving over time,” said Melissa Weddell, director of ITRR. “This report is a strong example of how we can use current nonresident survey data to take a closer look at statewide initiatives, economic trends, and residents’ perspectives.” Eastern Montana Initiative

The Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research conducts annual surveys of nonresident visitors to Montana. The more than 13 million tourists to the state spend nearly $5.5 billion annually, supporting more than 66,000 jobs and driving one of the state’s biggest industries.

But the majority of that spending, and visitation, is concentrated in the Glacier Country and Yellowstone Country tourism regions, at $1.76 and $1.3 billion respectively. The state’s Missouri River Country region and the Southeast combined for less than $1 billion in visitor spending during the last two years.

But following a larger focus from government and tourism focused groups, post-pandemic trends and record-breaking numbers at the state’s most popular sites, Glacier and Yellowstone national parks, the eastern regions of the state have more than doubled the nonresident spending since 2018.

In 2019, the Montana Department of Commerce’s State Tourism Office launched an Eastern Montana Initiative with a focus on bolstering tourism and economic development in “historically under-visited” parts of Montana.

The initiative was developed in response to declining bed tax revenues in Eastern Montana and with an aim at reducing overcrowding seen in western regions and national parks during peak tourism seasons. By providing grant funding to communities, the initiative sought to highlight eastern Montana’s unique landscapes, historical and cultural sites, and recreational opportunities, such as Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, which drew 5 percent of the region’s visitors.

In response, the Institute for Tourism Research launched its own parallel initiative to increase data collection across the eastern counties. From 2017 to 2019, surveyors with the institute nearly tripled the number of nonresident visitors they interacted with. “This project seeks to uncover and analyze visitor characteristics and community trends in eastern Montana over the past five years,” the ITRR report states, with a goal of providing “insights for stakeholders and policymakers to support sustainable economic development.”

Taking the state’s easternmost 23 counties, beginning with Blaine, Fergus, Musselshell, Yellowstone and Big Horn, researchers subdivided eastern Montana into five initiative zones — northwest, northeast, central, south and Yellowstone County.

Visitation levels in 2018, before the Eastern Montana Initiative began, were approximately 4.8 million annually. During the five years of the study period, overall visitation grew by about 142,000, or 3 percent.

However, when researchers looked at the zones within the region, they saw significant growth everywhere but Yellowstone County, indicating that visitors passing through eastern Montana are stopping in more areas, seeing more travel destinations, and spending more in each sub-region.

“That growth — especially without major investment — shows real resilience and opportunity,” Weddell told the Daily Montanan. “What’s happening in Eastern Montana is a success story.”

The northeast zone, comprising Valley, Daniels, Sheridan, Roosevelt and Richland counties, saw a 68 percent increase in visitors by 2023. The northwest zone saw a 31 percent increase, followed by the central zone at 25 percent and south zone at 20 percent.

Yellowstone County saw a 5 percent decrease in visitors — further evidence that travelers are shifting their visitation habits outside the main population center.

In tandem with visitor increases, spending by nonresidents also saw a huge boost — by nearly 82 percent over the entire region.

The central zone saw a 200 percent increase in spending, the northwest saw a 106 percent increase in spending and at the low end, Yellowstone County saw a nearly 40 percent increase in tourism spending The largest spending category across all regions was transportation, which includes fuel, with sales of $499 million. The spending category with the most growth was shopping retail, and specifically “Made in Montana” branded goods, which increased from $60 million in 2018 to $132 million in 2023.

While the statewide initiative helped provide some money, the state’s regional nonprofit tourism boards have a heavy hand in promoting the counties under their umbrella as travel destinations.

“We have always felt that eastern Montana, and specifically northeastern Montana, has always felt like the red-headed step child,” Ray Trumpower, board chairman of Missouri River Country Tourism Region, told the Daily Montanan. “We’re in Montana, kind of. But when tourists think of Montana, they think of Glacier, they think of Yellowstone, they think of mountains. They don’t think of the cool things in eastern Montana, so it’s always been tough for us to get attention.”

Among the top attractions surveyed visitors mentioned was Makoshika State Park, the state’s largest, which features badland formations and numerous dinosaur fossil remains. Four percent of visitors to the region stopped at Makoshika, according to surveys.

A few highlights from the ITRR report:

• 4.84 million – Tourists who passed through eastern Montana, with 2.62 million staying overnight

• 74 percent of visitors were repeat travelers to Montana

• $460 million – spent on fuel across all EMI zone

• 500 percent – Increase in spending on rental cabins, condos and homes between 2018 and 2023

• 73 percent – portion of visitors who arrived via car

• 21 percent – portion of visitors who arrived via RV

• 19 percent of visitors were from North Dakota and Minnesota

• 10 percent of visitors were from Washington.

• 39 percent of visitors were drawn to the uncrowded open spaces Trumpower has been part of the organization since its incorporation more than 30 years ago. He said that the organization had seen some decline in visitors in the 2010s, but following the pandemic saw a substantial change as people opted to avoid crowded areas, like popular national parks.

“Those places are getting at or past capacity, people are looking for other things and here we are,” Trumpower said. “We’ve been promoting that: Don’t want a crowd? We’ve got cool stuff over here.”

He said the organization has launched new initiatives to highlight the region’s attractions, including the Talking Trail, a series of 42 historical sites, museums, and recreation areas close to U.S. Highway 2, the main thoroughfare through the northern part of the state.

“We’ve worked very hard to make that successful,” Trumpower said. “People are coming out to the big open and experiencing some history with nobody else around. There’s been a real uptick.”

As much of eastern Montana tourism is people passing through to other areas, diverting drivers and RVers — “such an uptick in RVers and they spend so much time here” — to places “just out of sight” of the highway has made a huge difference, Trumpower said.

Shifting Industry

There are still some barriers to overcome, including the lower levels of infrastructure and amenities to support tourism in eastern Montana, a holdover from how the region’s economy has traditionally operated.

The ITRR report notes that eastern Montana has traditionally depended on agriculture and fossil fuel extraction for economic stability. But farms and ranches have been in steady decline due to challenges such as drought, urban encroachment, aging demographics, and changing land ownership, while the coal industry has seen production decline nearly 30% between 2018 and 2023, reflecting broader shifts in energy demand and policy.

Slower population growth in eastern Montana — 4 percent from 2018 to 2023 — compared to the west compounds some of the issues with becoming a tourism hotspot.

Trumpower said many small towns that might be seeing more tourists often lack the workers to staff restaurants and just a single motel.

To address some of these barriers, Montana Legislature in 2023 passed Senate Bill 540, which reallocated a portion of revenue from the lodging facility use tax, or bed tax, to support rural tourism initiatives, tribal tourism and under-visited area attraction projects through grants. They can be used for projects including infrastructure development, marketing and promotional activities.

While the 2025 Legislature lowered the portion of the bed tax allocated to these projects, Weddell, the ITRR director, said the programs they fund have the potential to sustain tourism momentum in eastern Montana.

“It will be exciting to see, five to 10 years from now, how this kind of investment could strengthen infrastructure and expand the visitor economy in eastern Montana,” Weddell said.

In the new report, researchers surveyed residents about their attitudes towards tourism and tourists, and while 79 percent said they feel the benefits outweigh the negative impacts, just 51 percent felt their communities had the necessary amenities to support a tourism economy.

Overall, ITRR researchers say that having the new report as a baseline will enhance further data collection and research in the future, and provides important information to state leaders, and local communities and businesses navigating the shifting landscape of eastern Montana’s economic future.

“It’s exciting to see that visitors aren’t just passing through eastern Montana anymore. They’re staying, spending more and experiencing what the region has to offer,” Rachel Shouse, of ITRR, told the Daily Montanan. “It’s also special to see how satisfied visitors are. Anyone who’s spent time in eastern Montana knows how remarkable the people and places are, and it’s great to see that visitors feel that too.”