Speech
Governor's Tourism Conference
Remarks of Governor Judy Martz
Billings
4/6/2004
It’s great to be here and to see so many friendly faces. You have a great industry and I always appreciate your hospitality wherever I travel in Montana.
As Lt. Governor for four years, and now as Governor, I have enjoyed celebrating with communities and organizations the TIIP grant awards they have received for their Tourism Assessment Projects from the Montana Department of Commerce.
It is always nice for an elected official to bring money to town, but it is even more fulfilling to see the community excitement and pride in the tourism-related projects the community is involved in. These projects – like the Moss Mansion, Yellowstone Art Museum, and ZooMontana here in Billings, the Visitor/Community Center in Hardin, the Beartooth Nature Center in Red Lodge, and many more – represent local people improving their local community using tourism as a tool.
These projects are not just for visitors from out of state, they are for the local residents and people all across Montana and they are helping to strengthen the local economy and improve our quality of life. Strengthening Montana’s Economy has been the focus of my administration since the day I became Governor. In this effort, we have often referred to Montana’s Tourism & Recreation Industry as a model for other economic development efforts to learn from.
You are veterans in the “cluster development” concept that my Roadmap to a New Economy is based on. You are experienced, and skilled in working together, creating partnerships, and sharing resources for the benefit of the whole. You have been the “good news” in an transitioning economy.
When we experienced economic challenges – challenges primarily caused by events beyond our control – and our state budget suffered, your industry came forward and helped the legislature balance the state budget. In the 2002 Special Session, bed tax funds were transferred from the Department of Commerce to help balance the budget. In the 2003 Regular Session, an increase in the bed tax provided new general fund revenue.
I also want to recognize the leadership of the car rental community. Your selfless dedication to the future of our state is also very important to me. Thanks for your efforts last session.
When our administration tried to address some of Montana’s economic hurdles through our Tax Reform Policy, the Tourism Advisory Council provided its support. Many of you got involved with one of the three tax reform committees that I appointed to change to our tax system.
We resisted those proposals that wanted to use bed taxes for items other than promoting and developing Montana as an attractive visitor destination for the benefit of Montana’s economy and social well-being.
We joined you in emphasizing that the bed tax and the programs it supports are working and working well. It’s not broken; it doesn’t need fixing. I urge your continued vigilance in protecting the use of bed tax funds for tourism purposes.
Throughout my administration’s tenure, this industry has been host to well over 9 million visitors a year. That’s more than 10 times our number of residents. This means 10 times more customers for Montana businesses. And our visitors do spend money. Last year, they put over $1.8 billion into Montana’s economy. Visitor spending is one of the largest income sources for our state.
80% of Montana’s visitors are repeats. These are people who have had such a good time in Montana that they keep coming back, again and again. That’s high praise for this industry and this great place we are fortunate to live, work and play in. The Montana tourism industry’s tools and programs are envied by other states.
Over the last three years, the Department of Commerce’s Travel Montana program has received two national “Best Practices in Tourism” awards. The first was presented to the Travel Montana web-marketing program.
The second, just announced in March, went to the program’s tourism development funding efforts – the TIIP Grant Program, Community Tourism Assessments and the Special Events Grant Program.
Talk about putting tax dollars to work on good purposes – the TIIP Grant program alone has invested just over $1.8 million in bed tax funds into 40 tourism-related projects in 28 Montana communities. That investment has helped create $23 million worth of new and improved Montana facilities for visitors and residents alike.
For Montana’s Quality of Life, these projects mean improved community facilities, attractions and positive attitudes about the value of where we live and how we live. We applaud this industry’s foresight and the dedication that is highlighted by your current 5-year strategic plan. You are reaching out to agriculture, to communities and to other interests in the state that can benefit from tourism while continuing to grow your industry.
Along with being Montana’s “good news” industry, you do things that are just plain fun to be part of.
Last month we helped with the Montana In-State Winter Campaign. That’s the campaign that encouraged Montanans to get out and enjoy the snow and ice in their own backyards. Ski in Montana. Skate on a local rink. Snowmobile, snowshoe or take a dog sled into the public lands around us. Enjoy winter right here.
In just a moment, I am going to say a bit more about enjoying our public lands and snowmobiling in Yellowstone National Park. The big prize of the campaign was a ski pass for life at Montana’s ski areas. It was great to see a young mother of three – Heather Swanson of Great Falls – win the pass.
Last Friday In Great Falls, I presented Heather with her award. She and her husband have been skiing since they were kids and they are putting their own children on the slopes now. It was a perfect match and a great campaign for Montana.
Thanks to a great public/private sector partnership for putting it together – Mackenzie River Pizza – a Montana-made business; Big Sky Airlines; the Montana Ski Areas Association; and the Commerce Department’s Travel Montana program.
George Willett of the Showdown Ski Area was one of the people who joined us for the campaign kick-off last month at Helena’s Mackenzie River Pizza.
Little did we know at the time how fitting George’s participation in the kick-off was, as he will see a great deal of our winner as she enjoys the wonderful snow of Showdown. Now back to Yellowstone.
As many of you know, I have been working hard to protect continued access to Yellowstone National Park. We went to West Yellowstone in January and spent a day on a CLEAN snow machine in Yellowstone Park. It’s been a topsy-turvy winter for Yellowstone and its gateway communities with all the court rulings, lawsuits and countersuits. We hope that things will stabilize for next winter. But be assured that this administration will do everything within its power to see that the peoples’ park remains open to snowmobilers and other forms of winter access.
Each and every person and organization in this audience tonight knows of projects and partnerships among tourism and recreation entities that are improving – or trying to improve – conditions in Montana communities and regions. From the Flathead Valley groups that helped limit Montana’s image damage during the 2003 fires to the eastern Montana communities that have banded together to get Highway 323 paved between Ekalaka and Alzada. In these places and at many points in between, this industry is involved in a multitude of efforts to improve our state…to help it be the best it can be.
Thank you for your work. We have appreciated the opportunity to be your partner and to work with you over these last four years. Good luck.
-end-
2003 Montana Tourism Facts:
· Montana was host to almost 9.9 million visitors – more than 10 times the population of Montana
· Our visitors spent over $1.8 billion during their visits – one of the top income producing activities for the state.
· Montana’s tourism and recreation businesses supported over 33,000 Montana jobs.
· Visitor spending provided $506.5 million in workers’ salaries
· Visitors ate 110 million meals while in the state – that offers great potential for creating a local market to support and help increase the amount of value-added Montana agricultural products our farmers and ranchers produce.
· Montana’s airline service would not be anywhere near its current level without Montana visitors using these services – about half of all commercial airline passengers are visitors to the state.
