Glacier gives region a boost

GLACIER NATIONAL PARK - Massive peaks, huge lakes, ancient trees - and an economic wallop to boot.

Visitors to Glacier National Park spent more than $108 million in 2010, a new National Park Service study revealed last week.

Most of that spending - about $104 million - was done by non-local visitors. The Park also created 1,632 jobs with a payroll of nearly $42 million, the study concluded.

Fifty-two percent of the spending and jobs were related to lodging, food, and beverage service. Retail spending accounted for 29 percent; entertainment and recreation was 10 percent; gas and transportation was 7 percent, and food was 2 percent.

Nationwide, 281 million visitors to national parks spent $12 billion at 394 national parks and nearby communities, according to a study and analysis conducted for the National Park Service by Daniel Stynes, of Michigan State University.

Across the U.S., local visitor-spending in 2010 added a total of $31 billion to the national economy and supported more than 258,000 jobs, an increase of $689 million and 11,500 jobs over 2009.

The numbers didn't surprise Cris Coughlin, co-owner and partner of the Montana Raft Co. and Glacier Wilderness Guides.

"The Park is the driving economic factor in our business," she said last week.

Coughlin said visitors don't come to the area just to raft. They come to see Glacier Park, and then they book a half-day raft trip on the river. That's about half of the company's business, she said.

The other half is people who are guided by the company on backpacking trips. Those people have usually carefully planned their excursion and are here for an extended stay - about a week in most cases.

"They're two very different markets," Coughlin said, but both rely on the Park.

Three other raft companies also rely on the park, as do a host of campgrounds, restaurants, lodges and other businesses.

Montana Raft Co. will celebrate its 30th year in business this season, Coughlin said. In many ways, Glacier Park has proven to be close to recession-proof. Her business typically sees a slowdown in economically tough times, she said, but it has gotten along fine.

Even in 2003, when wildfires torched the west side of Glacier Park, and the Middle Fork of the Flathead River was closed to rafting by late July, the company still did OK, she said.

Coughlin said Glacier Park is so big they were able to re-route hiking trips to the east side of the Divide, and rafters came anyway - they ran the lower section of the river from Blankenship Bridge to Hungry Horse instead the upriver sections.

To download the report, visit online at www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/products.cfm#MGM and click on "Economic Benefits to Local Communities from National Park Visitation and Payroll, 2010." The report includes information for visitor spending at individual parks and by state.