Tourism: Selling the Montana Experience
Tourism has been increasing since the Northern Pacific Railroad began delivering visitors to the gateway of Yellowstone National Park in the 1880s. Today about 37,000 Montanans—8 percent of the workforce—have jobs related to tourism. Most tourists visit western and central Montana.
Tourists mostly come to experience Montana’s great outdoors, so the growth of tourism has shaped how people see the land. Its scenic beauty has become a resource more valuable than gold or copper mining. Unspoiled mountaintops, healthy fisheries, and abundant wildlife have always been a part of Montanans’ quality of life. Now they are crucial for Montana’s economic health as well.
Many tourists come to experience Montana’s past. They visit historic towns like Virginia City or Philipsburg, where people have preserved historic buildings. And thousands visit places like the Little Bighorn National Monument to stand on the spot where important events happened.
Tourism: Driving Around for Fun
Like every transportation revolution, automobiles created new industries. Automobile owners needed gas and oil, tires, new car parts, and mechanics to fix their cars. And once on the road, they needed food, road information, and places to stay. Most of all, they needed places to go.
In the affordable automobile, people could travel just for fun. Suddenly people wanted to see everything: Yellowstone National Park, Glacier National Park, the mountains, the forests, and tourist attractions near and far. Kids and parents piled into the family car and went camping.
A new kind of hotel appeared: the motor hotel, or motel. These do it-yourself inns offered few of the services and luxuries of city hotels. They catered to the independent-minded traveler.
Interstates Boosted Tourism
The new interstate highways, fast cars, and cheap gas turned the West into America’s vacationland. For the first time, many Americans could afford to travel long distances by freeway for vacations. They loaded the kids into the station wagon and headed west.
Montana developed more parks and historic sites. More Montanans opened dude ranches, fishing resorts, and lodges. And people built ski resorts to expand the tourist season into the winter. By the mid-1970s tourism was one of Montana’s biggest industries
Project
Create a brochure (power point or google slide) highlighting different tourist activities in Montana and the reasons tourists come to Montana today.
