Governor Martz Hails Five Year Montana Tourism & Recreation Strategic Plan as a Model for State’s Future Economic Growth

(Helena)-Recognizing that the tourism and recreation industry is one of the pillars of Montana’s economy, Governor Martz, endorsed the completed Montana Tourism & Recreation Strategic Plan 2003-2007.

(Thanks to Mark Martin of the Missoula Cultural Council for passing this along.- Russ)

"The tourism and recreation industry is one of the models for our state’s future economic growth," said Governor Martz. "Its focus on regional development, partnerships and creating teams to accomplish the job at hand is something this industry has employed…and it has worked."

Governor Martz stated that one of the primary reasons for Montana’s success in tourism and recreation is that those involved had the foresight to plan ahead and identify how their efforts could do good things for Montana’s economic and social well-being.

"Planning lets you see where you want to be and it sheds light on the path you need to take to get there," said Governor Martz. "That is a lesson we can put to good use in every sector of our economy."

According to Betsy Baumgart, Administrator of the Department of Commerce Montana Promotion Division, the plan was developed to be market driven – for tourism and recreation to respond to the market demand presented by both Montanans and out of state visitors.

"In the coming years, tourism and recreation’s viability economically, socially, and environmentally will depend on how we listen to what travelers, both in state and out of state, want and need, and then deliver them a first-rate experience," said Baumgart. The Montana Tourism and Recreation Strategic Plan 2003-2007 has been a year in the making. The planning process began in Fall 2001 with a series of 8public meetings held across Montana. Input from the 400 people attending those meetings was combined with ideas and comments from stakeholder groups and individuals to develop the plan’s vision statement, goals and objectives. Another 422 Montanans helped prioritize the plan’s objectives and actions through an on-line survey. Further refinements were made to the plan using 650 comments received through the survey in addition to on-going discussions with the 75 stakeholder groups.

The Hingston Roach Group was contracted by the Montana Commerce Department to develop the plan on behalf of Montana’s tourism and recreation industry. The Montana Tourism and Recreation Initiative (MTRI), a multi-agency cooperative involving 18 state and federal agencies that have tourism and recreation programs within their operations, was a co-sponsor of the planning process.

Some of the key objectives of the Plan:

* Tourism must be sustainable, and consistent with the values of Montanans: access to public/private lands and waters, maintenance of natural/historic/cultural assets and infrastructure are key issues to address.

* Maintain and enhance Montana’s transportation system: ground, air, and rail. * Highly targeted, strategic promotion is needed to maintain competitiveness. Packaging is needed to make Montana easier for visitors to plan and purchase vacations.

* Partnerships are critical to the success of Montana’s tourism & recreation efforts.

* Stronger links between value-added agriculture and tourism.

Tourism is Montana’s second largest industry. Montana hosted 9.5 million non-residents in 2001. These visitors spent $1.7 billion during their stay.

The strategic plan document is available electronically on Travel Montana’s Internet site: http://www.travelmontana.state.mt.us

The Montana Department of Commerce Promotion Division’s tourism promotion and development efforts, statewide, are financed by the 4 percent lodging tax. These efforts have not used General Fund dollars since 1987.

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Travel Industry Helped by Web, Frequency

By Robyn Greenspan CyberAtlas

The travel industry is benefiting from the online revolution as research finds
that half of all U.S. Internet users — equaling roughly 59 million
individuals — have made a travel purchase online, and more than 2-in-10
adults are frequent domestic travelers.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project (http://www.pewinternet.org)measured
a significant increase in the amount of online travel buyers in 2002, up from
36 percent (about 31 million Internet users) in 2000 — representing a 90
percent growth rate. Comparatively, other online activities, such as
participating in online auctions experienced 69 percent growth, and playing
games had a 45 percent growth rate during then same period.

Scarborough Research (http://www.scarborough.com/) took an in-depth look at the
domestic travel habits of Americans and found that 21 percent in 74 cities are
frequent domestic travelers, taking five or more overnight trips (business or
personal), either by air, land or sea, within the Continental U.S. during
February 2001 to March 2002.

Scarborough’s profile of the frequent domestic traveler would likely be a high-
income, white-collar, college-educated male. Scarborough found that frequent
travelers are 17 percent more likely then the average adult to be white-collar
workers and 12 percent more likely to be men; 38 percent have annual household
incomes of $75,000+; 25 percent are single; college grads are 29 percent more
likely than average adult to make frequent domestic journeys, while those with
post-graduate degrees are 50 percent more likely then the norm to do the same.

Alisa Joseph, vice president, director of sales, advertiser marketing services
at Scarborough Research, analyzed the results even further: "Scarborough found
that markets with a high percentage of frequent travelers have bigger families
and higher household incomes. Additionally, frequent travelers have a tendency
to work for large companies in those markets. Types of professions also seem to
be a factor, particularly in the engineering, sales, financial and computer-
related industries."

Scarborough determined that frequent travelers are more likely to visit certain
hot spots, such as New York City (more than twice as likely); Los Angeles (79
percent more likely); Orlando (65 percent more likely); and the Las Vegas strip
(62 percent more likely).

Furthermore, frequent travelers are 85 percent more likely than the general
population to snow ski, 43 percent more likely to go camping, and 29 percent
more likely to go bicycling. Almost half (48 percent) have attended a
professional sports event in the past 12 months, 34 percent have seen a live
theater performance, and 18 percent have attended a rock concert.

U.S. Cities with Most Frequent Domestic Travelers:

— Atlanta, GA = 28%

— Austin, TX = 28%

— Dallas, TX = 27%

— Mobile, AL = 27%

— Charlotte, NC = 27%

— Portland, OR = 26%

— Washington, DC = 26%

— Minneapolis, MN = 25%

— San Francisco, CA = 25%

— Boston, MA = 25%

Average % of Adults in 74 Markets = 21%

Market represents DMA(R) (Designated Market Area)

U.S. Cities with Least Frequent Domestic Travelers:

— New York, NY = 18%

— Tucson, AZ = 17%

— Providence, RI = 17%

— Cleveland, OH = 17%

— Detroit, MI = 17%

— Miami, FL = 17%

— El Paso, TX = 17%

— Wilkes-Barre, PA = 17%

— Louisville, KY = 16%

— Buffalo, NY = 14%

Average % of Adults in 74 Markets = 21%

Market represents DMA(R) (Designated Market Area)