Study: Perception of tourism's role is changing

A small minority of Montanans continue to believe that tourism creates more negative impacts than positive benefits to the state, but tourism is not seen as a main cause for making Montana seem "overcrowded."

These are the conclusions of the University of Montana's Institute of Tourism and Recreation Research's annual survey of resident attitudes toward tourism. The February report was prepared by Norma Nickerson.

Since 1991, the survey has asked Montanans whether the overall benefits of tourism outweigh the negative impacts, whether increased tourism in Montana would improve the overall quality of life for residents, and whether the state is becoming overcrowded because of more tourists.

With the exception of the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, responses to the three questions have remained relatively constant over the past 17 years.

About 20 percent of respondents have consistently felt that negative impacts of tourism are worse than positive benefits.

"While this is only one-fifth of the population, if these people happen to be a loud minority, it may appear that more of the population agrees with this sentiment than actually do agree," Nickerson said.

About 60 percent of respondents said they believe increased tourism will improve their quality of life, which Nickerson said is "not a clear-cut endorsement of tourism."

The number of Montanans who blamed tourists for overcrowding has dropped from 50 percent of respondents in 1995 to about 25 percent last year. While tourism increases by about 2 percent a year, the attitude toward overcrowding significantly changed starting in 2000.

Nickerson proposed several implications from the results:

- Montanans who travel in their own state may recognize "that they, too, are tourists at some time, and hence tourists are really not all that bad."

- Wild fires that have "plagued" Western Montana nearly every year since 2000 have been presented to the public as bad for the tourist industry and therefore the state economy. That repeated message may have helped Montanans make the connection between tourism and positive benefits.

- As Montana's population grows, new residents may bring with them a more positive attitude about tourism — possibly because they were a tourist here before they moved to Montana.