Document Type

Report

Publication Date

10-2026

Disciplines

Agricultural and Resource Economics | Leisure Studies | Nature and Society Relations | Other Social and Behavioral Sciences | Regional Economics

Abstract

This report summarizes nonresident travel patterns across Montana for the 2021– 2025 survey period, prepared by an independent contractor for the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research (ITRR) at the University of Montana.

The analysis reconstructs each survey respondent’s most likely travel route through Montana using their recorded entry gateway, towns marked along the route, and exit gateway. Of the 40,837 nonresident survey respondents collected from 2021 through 2025, 5,004 (12.3%) could be reconstructed into mappable routes; these routed respondents are the basis for the analysis that follows and are referred to throughout as “visitors.” Non-routable respondents either did not complete the survey map or did not record a resolvable entry and exit and were excluded from this analysis.

This report is organized into seven parts. Part 1 provides a general summary of the survey data. Part 2 maps overall route density across the highway network. Part 3 examines where visitors enter and exit the state and how those gateways function. Part 4 classifies trips by travel pattern (linear, out-and-back, or fly-drive) and breaks each down by origin, length of stay, and travel party. Part 5 maps visitor origins by state and province. Part 6 examines the subgroup of visitors who toured both Glacier and Yellowstone on a single trip. Part 7 compares

Keywords

Nonresident Travel Pattern Analysis

Rights

© 2026 ITRR

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