The tourism and recreation industry supported nearly fifty thousand jobs and brought over $5 billion into Montana last year. That contributed to more than two-thirds of Montanans saying they think the positive aspects of tourism outweigh the negatives in an annual survey conducted by the Institute of Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana.

But longer-term data gathered by the institute show support for that viewpoint has declined by around 20% in the last decade, while belief that increased tourism in the future will negatively impact residents’ quality of life has doubled.