Park County Travel Council forecasts reduced tourist spending

CODY (WNE) — Poor consumer sentiment and less travel from Canada could yield lower spending by tourists this upcoming year.

At the last Park County Travel Council board meeting, PCTC Executive Director Ryan Hauck said that although hotels in the area are expected to do well this season, decreased spending caused by various national phenomena could hurt local businesses.

“Occupancy looks good, year-over-year it looks great. It’s going to be a very strange year,” Hauck said. “The Canadian market is going to be very down. Talking to Verb, they actually have in their grocery stores whether things are American made or not to make sure they don’t buy American products. ”

Hauck added that consumer sentiment is down. As a result of people having reduced confidence in the stock market, tourists may spend less money this upcoming travel season.

“I think hotels will do fine, but spending worries me because obviously last year was not a good spending year for us and if we have back-to-back (poor spending years) it might be tough for our local businesses,” Hauck said. “We’re doing what we can, but it’s going to be tough. We can’t make people spend money.”

PCTC board member Mike Keller said that visitation numbers for Yellowstone National Park are forecasted to be relatively strong by June. He also said that other travel markets in the area, such as Big Sky, West Yellowstone,and Bozeman, are expecting “very soft” travel until July.

This story was published on April 22, 2025.