One of Montana’s main travel destinations is reaching out to Canadians — offering deals, discounts and specials in an effort to lure them back for a visit.
The Montana city of Kalispell is near the Canada-U. S. border, about five hours south of Calgary.
Discover Kalispell, a tourism marketing and management organization for the city and northwest Montana, has unveiled its Kalispell Canadian Welcome Pass.
“The message is simple — we see you and we miss you,” said Diane Medler, executive director for Discover Kalispell.
The Canadian Welcome Pass includes 15 businesses and a mix deals on lodging, retail, dining and museums.
Canadian tourism to the United States has plummeted largely due to the low Canadian dollar and the arrival of U.S. President Donald Trump, his comments about making Canada becoming the 51st state and the ongoing trade war.
Popular destinations such as Las Vegas and California have also complained about a drop in tourism.
“We understand and totally respect there’s been some strong feelings over the past many months around decisions made at the federal level and we respect those feelings and opinions,” said Medler.
“To us, it’s about people and that human connection, and we just felt it was time to let our Canadian neighbour know that despite what’s going on, we’d love to have them back,” she said.
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Medler said her organization has collected data showing border crossings have dropped between 15 and 25 per cent, and credit card spending from international visitors is down by 39 per cent.
She said tourism is the biggest industry in northwestern Montana and it’s hurting local business.
“For northwest Montana, it is our leading industry,” she said.
“We are a seasonal destination. We’re a recreational destination.”
McKenzie McMillan, a travel consultant with the Vancouver-based Travel Group, said the Kalispell campaign isn’t breaking new ground.
“Here in Vancouver we’ve been seeing quite an extensive outreach from Seattle and King County, and then also from central and eastern Washington, especially the wine regions in eastern Washington with a push to get Canadians to come back down,” he said.
“They’re using the same sort of techniques that Kalispell is using here and offering deep discounts, Canadian at par rates, kind of tongue-in-cheek ad campaigns to try and win Canadians favour back and from what we’ve seen it hasn’t really moved the needle quite yet,” McMillan added.
But McMlllan said the ad campaigns don’t address why Canadians are looking elsewhere.
“A lot of these tourism boards either are missing the point or don’t want to address the point, given that many of these tourism boards are government funded,” he said.
“They’re really not addressing the point that Canadians are angry about the comments from the U.S. administration when it comes to 51st state, they’re angry over continued tariff conversations that seem to be punitive and those are the main reasons.”
McMillan estimates Canadian travel to the U.S. has dropped by at least 90 per cent, but people are still rushing to European destinations and Mexico.
He said a social media campaign earlier this year by California’s governor has had some success.
Gov. Gavin Newsom urged the two-million Canadians who visited last year to look past President Trump and return to enjoy the Golden State’s wine, sun and surf.
“I do think the outreach previously by California and Gavin Newsom did turn heads and probably made more of an impact than any of the other campaigns I’ve seen,” said McMillan.
“While maybe not enough to move the needle or bring Canadians back in droves — I definitely saw some clients and friends feel more relaxed about visiting the Golden State.”
The CEO of Tourism Lethbridge, an hour from Montana in Alberta, said the area has seen an increase in visitors at its information centre, including many from the United States.
“While I understand Kalispell is focused on attracting Canadian travellers, our efforts are aimed at both domestic and international visitors, including those from the U.S.,” said Erin Crane.
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