For many, Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer, but for West Yellowstone’s tourist economy the summer season extends through September, where on a sunny day, visitors from all over the world are walking the small town’s streets.
Travis Watt is the general manager for Three Bear Lodge in West Yellowstone.
“The summer is pretty close to last year, which was a good summer. We didn’t set any records, which is okay, and 2021 I think we set about every record and honestly it was insane,” Watt said.
The company also runs a restaurant and a tour company, which gives a well-rounded look at tourist spending. July, the parks busiest month, saw visitation increase by 2% over the last year, but that didn’t translate to the same increase for business.
“The hotel is down just a tiny bit not very much and our tours were down a hair and so it was basically flat for all intensive purposes,“ Watt said.
A new National Park Service report shows that visitors to Yellowstone National Park last year spent $623 million in communities near the park. Almost all of that money is spent by non-locals—people like Maryann Denobrega visiting for the first time from Connecticut.
“Oh my goodness it was beyond what you can expect, you just can't imagine it you really have to be here to experience it's just like unreal,” Denobrega said.
Her family spent four days staying in West Yellowstone and went to the park everyday through the West entrance.
That entrance is less than half a mile on the same road from co-owner Kelli Sanders bike rental shop, Freeheel and Wheel, and for her sometimes more people literally means less business.
“If there's a line to go into Yellowstone National Park we know that we're not going to be very busy because it's really hard for people to get to our store,” Sanders said.
The shop has been open for almost 30 years, selling coffee and outdoor equipment alongside seasonal bike and ski rentals.
“Starting at Memorial Day, I felt like it just wasn't as busy and I think people are going other places,” Sanders said.
Some of those places are international, now that many Americans have fulfilled their bucket list trips to Yellowstone, and international travel is more accessible without COVID-era restrictions, but some people are finding themselves just 30 minutes further down the road in Idaho.
“Island Park is taking up a lot of our customers because they're just having more they're being competitive,” Sanders said.
To draw tourists to Island Park, a new 111-room Marriott opened in 2020 and another three-story Marriott has been proposed, which affects not only the lodging market, but the entire town.
“A lot of expansions happened into like the Big Sky and Island Park Market there's a lot of growth in those markets so more people I think they're traveling through the West entrance and maybe not necessarily staying here,” Watt said.
