GREAT FALLS — Visitors from Canada play a big role in supporting the Great Falls economy. Rebecca Engum is the Executive Director for Visit Great Falls Montana and says historically, Canadians account for at least 20% of the area’s economic spending.
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“Last year that was $268 million in our local economy,” said Engum. “14% of that would have come from the Canadian traveler.”
Great Falls is just days away from Western Art Week followed by a spring and summer full of outdoor recreation opportunities, but strained relations with Canada may mean less visits from our neighbors to the north.
“We've been placing paid media up in Canada, and we've seen a lot of, comments in our paid media, areas of dislike for America right now,” said Engum.
While they don’t yet have any hard numbers, Engum says her officed has noticed a drop-off.
“In January, our visitation just to the visitor information services of what we provide was 28% Canadian, and in February it was down to about 2%,” said Engum.
Engum says that number is back up to about 14% so far in March. She says she has heard some area businesses have been impacted by the tensions between the nations.
“We have some anecdotal data that there's some lodging properties in town that have bus tours that have been canceled, and that there are some individual leisure travelers that have chosen not to make the trip into the States,” said Engum.
One place that has seen lower numbers is the Holiday Inn. General Manager George Johnson says that could be attributed to the recent lengthy closure of the new Tony Roma’s restaurant, a popular eatery among Canadians which is slated to re-open on Friday March 14, and a recent cold snap that may have kept people home. But he won’t discount the rhetoric from Washington.
“We have had a few phone calls the last week that people wanted to cancel because they just weren't comfortable with the animosity over tariffs,” said Johnson.
Engum says the federal policy towards the outdoors might also result in less visitors.
“When trails aren't being maintained or forests aren't being managed in a way that makes it easily accessible to the public, that causes changes in people's behavior as well,” said Engum.
Engum says she thinks the upcoming Western Art Week events won’t be significantly impacted by current events.
“We have a lot of Canadian artists that come down to exhibit during Western Art week, and we haven't heard from any of the shows that those artists are canceling,” said Engum.
Engum says Visit Great Falls Montana will monitor room demand after Western Art Week to get a better idea if Canadian visitor numbers are down for the event.
Johnson says he hasn’t noticed a drop off in reservations during Western Art Week but won’t be able to fully analyze the numbers until after it’s over.
While Johnson doesn’t think Great Falls has been hit as hard as some other places, his discussions with other area hotel executives show traffic down across the board. He says Great Falls has a good relationship with Canada and hopes the tough talk between nations is just a small blip overall.
“It was an uncertain issue that we've never had to deal with before,” said Johnson. “But now that we've dealt with it and, tried to learn how to address, those issues, I think we'll be fine.”
“Our stance is Great Falls is still ready to welcome Canadian visitors and any visitor from that standpoint,” said Engum.
“I think will be we'll be back to our normal amount of traffic from Canada. We welcome and like our Canadian guests,” said Johnson.
