MISSOU — Large events at the University of Montana, such as Griz football games and concerts, bring significant crowds to Missoula.
Those visitors bring millions of dollars into the local economy.
A new partnership between the University of Montana, Destination Missoula and the Missoula Tourism Business Improvement District (TBID) aims to boost tourism through university events, creating additional economic opportunities.
"We're essentially putting on paper what we've known, that working together to bring more visitors to events in Missoula means more economic impact to our city," said Barb Neilan, executive director of Destination Missoula and TBID. "More hotel stays, more dinners at local restaurants, more demand for our retail shops and more desire for direct flights to reach us. All of these things visitors enjoy but, as residents, we also benefit from all of them."
WATCH THE FULL STORY HERE:
During a single University of Montana home football weekend, nonresident visitors spend about $5.2 million in Missoula County, according to the university’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research.
About $1.6 million of that goes to hotels and lodging, and about $1.3 million to bars and restaurants.
"We know that more than 50% of our season ticket base travels more than 2 and a half hours to get here. It can become easy to just turn on ESPN Plus and watch that game, but we need them here," said Kent Haslam, director of Grizzly Athletics. "People are coming here and they're filling up the stadium, and that's what we want to do."
As part of the partnership, the Missoula TBID also announced it will invest $100,000 over the next year in the university’s athletic program.
"To help attract top-tier talent and promote events that put heads in beds and butts in seats across Missoula," said Dan Monahan, general manager of The Edgewater Missoula and president of TBID. "The investment and partnership provides a framework for innovation on how we tell Missoula stories to the people outside of our city. We look forward to finding new ways to secure major events, promote our local businesses and grow our tourism economy together."
The university will report event ticket sales to partners to better understand the impact of promotion and tourism on the Missoula economy.
Dave Kuntz, the university's director of strategic communications, said they are already distributing Destination Missoula's travel guide to prospective students.
"When the Griz win, Missoula wins, and I think when Missoula wins, Montana wins. So, we're excited for this partnership," Kuntz said.
