Valley's haul this week could top $1 million

Rest up tonight, innkeepers, merchants, restaurateurs and gas-station owners. And drivers, be patient.

It's going to get busy in the Flathead this week.

Something like 3,600 visitors will arrive for two premier events - the 43rd Annual International Fly Fishing Show and Conclave July 22-26 and The Event at Rebecca Farm, a top-drawer horse eventing show July 23-27.

Add to that the activity generated from the Hockaday Museum's Arts in the Park in Kalispell and the Columbia Falls Heritage Days celebration, and things will be moving.

All of the events fall smack-dab at the height of the summer tourism season.

"It's all good for our local economy," Flathead Convention and Visitor Bureau Executive Director Dori Muehlhof said. "Tourism is our bread and butter, and it's bringing a lot of nonresident visitors to the area."

Firm dollar figures are hard to come by in advance, but the economic impact of these simultaneous big-scale events will be significant by any measure.

Travel Montana, the tourism arm of the state's Department of Commerce, recently did a follow-up study of visitors who booked their Montana vacations through its Web site. Those who carried through on their travel plans - generally seasoned travelers with higher incomes and in the 40 to 60 age group - spent an average of about $450 a day while here.

Not everybody stays in hotels, eats in restaurants and indulges in high-dollar shopping sprees, though. When the lower- and middle-budget travelers are figured into the mix, the average comes down to around $155.

Doing an admittedly over-simplified calculation from those raw numbers, the economic impact from next week's visitors could be anywhere from $558,000 to $1.62 million.

TO ILLUSTRATE the spending potential, Rebecca Broussard, owner and organizer of The Event at Rebecca Farm, along with her daughter, Sarah Kelley, related an economic anecdote from a few years back.

A young man at the event had won a $3,000 prize. He was a bit scruffy-looking when he showed up at the bank Monday morning to cash the check, she said, so the bank phoned Broussard to be sure everything was on the up and up.

"I assured them it was fine," she chuckled. "And he spent almost all of it here."

Similar stories could play out this week as visitors spread across the Flathead in the prime of summer, looking for ways to enjoy it all.

But no matter what the haul is from this week's combined events, the visitation exposure is all good.

"We're really happy they're coming," Whitefish Convention and Visitor Bureau Jan Metzmaker said. "We appreciate that they chose us, and we want them to enjoy themselves."

Metzmaker's group teamed with Whitefish Mountain Resort and Lakestream Fly Fishing Shop in their bid to have Whitefish host the fly-fishing conclave.

Because of Whitefish High School's facilities and the staff's willingness to meet the international show's needs, because the resort had a good roster of accommodations and the rest of the town could fill in the blanks, and because of the rest of the city's ability to handle such a crowd, they won the bid.

Conclave organizers report that 2,000 people usually attend from across the nation and around the world. Metzmaker said she's expecting at least 1,000 of those to come from out of the area, with locals and walk-ins filling in the rest.

"It's awfully difficult to find a place to stay," she said on Thursday.

Sheila Bowen, president of the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce, seconded that notion.

This weekend, with the state youth baseball tournament and several large conferences in town, the hotels are sold out, Bowen said. She surveyed the lodges and hotels in Whitefish, at Whitefish Mountain Resort and near Glacier National Park and found that for the July 25-27 weekend, their rooms already are 90 percent booked.

"You're always able, for the most part, to find hotels - maybe not in Whitefish, but up on the mountain," she said. "Very seldom do we have that high an occupancy rate in all locations. Of course, having Alpinglow closed makes a big difference. This is the first summer without them."

The 54-room Alpinglow Inn at the resort closed for repairs last fall.

Broussard said she tried to book a room at The Lodge at Whitefish Lake for an Event guest a short time back and discovered this weekend's accommodations all had been reserved for the past six months.

After a tough string of fire-riddled summers that choked tourism, it looks as if hotel owners finally will be able to capitalize on what traditionally is their biggest season.

OTHERS will, too.

"It's generally felt by the American Horse Council," Broussard said of horse-eventing shows, "that every horse that comes brings with it three-and-a-half people. That's been the case with us, and often four or five or six people."

By midweek, Broussard had 420 horses entered, "but there always is attrition so the number will be smaller." Last year about 360 horses competed. There were 422 people listed as competitors, and more than 15,700 spectators flooded the grounds at Spring Creek and Farm To Market Road.

Flathead Travel makes all the travel arrangements and books local accommodations for event officials, with 60 rooms booked at two nearby Kalispell hotels. Many competitors and their entourages camp at Rebecca Farm, usually about 1,000 people.

"Those people are eating in town buying gas, buying groceries," and all the other necessities for a week's stay, she said.

But for many, it's not just a week. They'll start pulling their horse trailers in on Tuesday for the five-day competition, but then stay another week just to enjoy the area. Several come from Europe, where the euro is stronger than the dollar, and Broussard expects they will feel freer to spend their money.

"That certainly is the case with Canadians," she said.

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com