Tourism Institute tracks visitors and their habits

This just in from the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana: Nonresident travelers spent about $1.87 billion in Montana last year.

By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulian

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/09/20/news/local/news04.txt

Researchers also learned these tidbits:

About 4.2 million nonresident traveler groups visited Montana in 2003

Visitor spending generated nearly 37,000 jobs and $739 million in total personal income for Montana residents

The state’s nonresident travel industry comprises 7 percent of the state’s total employment structure, on par with construction, agriculture and the finance/real estate industries.

Montana state and local governments received about $135 million in taxes from nonresident travel spending.

Yellowstone and Glacier national parks attract the most out-of-state travelers, while shopping and wildlife watching are the most popular recreational activities for nonresidents.

For more information about the research, call 243-5107 or log onto http://www.itrr.umt.edu.

In other UM news:

A new transportation center was dedicated recently at 2820 S. Higgins Ave. The center, which is next to UM’s newest student housing, is the result of a joint effort between UM and the Missoula Ravalli Transportation Management Authority.

Funding from a Federal Transit Authority grant has helped create a 300-space parking lot, a waiting room, public restrooms, office and storage space.

The center will be named in honor of Marlice McMahon, who worked in UM’s Office of Public Safety from 1962 to 1986, and will be operating by the end of September.

On Monday, UM’s Practical Ethics Center will begin another season of "PEC Presents." The lecture series focuses on today’s most pressing ethical issues.

The first lecture of the season is titled "The Ethics and Politics of Stem Cell Research," and will be given by PEC director Mark Hanson. The event will be held Monday from 12:10 to 1 p.m. at UM’s College of Technology, in the Dean’s Office Conference Room in the Administration Building.

For the remainder of Fall Semester, the following lectures will be held at 12:10 p.m. in Room 108 of UM’s Gallagher Building.

Oct. 4 – "Daily Ethics: The Challenges of Newspaper Journalism," Ginny Merriam, Missoulian reporter.

Oct. 18 – "Negotiating Privilege: The Application of Science and Cultural Rationality on the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument," James Burchfield, COT program director.

Nov. 1 – "Privacy and the Responsibilities of the Information Technology Professional," Thomas Gallagher, COT program director.

Nov. 15 – "Sustainability and the Ethics of Choice," Michael Kustudia, Sustainable Communities program specialist, National Center for Appropriate Technology.

Dec. 6 – "Ethics and Errors in Rural Health Care," UM associate professor Ann Cook, director, National Rural Bioethics Project.