Tourism in late summer, early fall a ‘pleasant surprise’

POWELL (WNE) — Tourism remained a pleasant surprise in September in Park County, especially around Cody and in Yellowstone National Park, as evidenced by the increase in lodging tax collections over last year.

Tax collections were up more than $30,000 for September compared to last year.

At October’s Park County Travel Council meeting, board members had specific or anecdotal evidence to back up a successful late summer season for tourism. Mike Keller, CEO of Xanterra, said Yellowstone was busy again in September as expected.

“You can’t even tell we’re in a shutdown right now,” he said. “Everything is rocking and rolling right now.”

He said the park remains busy halfway through October, with international travelers still making a big impact, especially with Indian, Pakistani and European tourists.

Board member and local hotelier Quintin Blair said numbers were slightly down from last year for the first part of the summer, but was consistent with last year’s numbers later in the summer.

“We saw our demand level out and compete with last year almost equally,” he said. “It was a bit of a pleasant surprise.”

Board chair John Parsons said in talking to business owners around town there was a similar optimism, as while many said they didn’t have quite the traffic they expected, those who did come spent more.

Blair noted even his retail business at the Holiday Inn/ Comfort Inn/Buffalo Bill Village properties was up 5%, which was very unexpected.

This story was published on Oct. 21, 2025.