Winter tourism spike helps West Yellowstone areas

ISLAND PARK, Idaho (KIFI) - The heavy amounts of snow that has been seen this winter season has led to a good season of tourism in West Yellowstone areas, and Island Park is feeling the spike. With lots of good snow, people have been coming to the area.

"The winter season so far has been good. Most of the people report, you know, a high level of snow. A good snow year just equals better commerce for the whole town. So we've had that and plenty of cold weather, but the snow is great," Island Park Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Collette Rinehart said.

Though the good amounts of snow has been helped but only when people can navigate the roads around the area.

"We want good snow. In talking to some of the restaurants in the in town and they're saying, you know, that business is up when it's not, it's due to a weather event. So we do love a lot of snow, but just not closing the roads and -40 degrees. That tends to slow people down a little bit," Rinehart said.

Before the start of the winter season, many business owners in Island Park were hoping for a large with winter tourism season, a hope that is closer to becoming a reality.

"Everybody is very happy with the way the season is turning out this year. Everybody reported that they are up. A couple of the hotels said that they're exceeding their budget not by a lot, but their budget was already over what last year was, and they're exceeding that. So that's just a pretty good indicator that things are going well, at least in the lodging industry," Rinehart said.

With the large amount of snow we have seen this winter season there are hopes of extending the season.

"One of the local rental places, High Mountain Adventures, Justin was saying they're planning on possibly extending their snow season. They generally have a time when they cut off rentals. But this year, due to the amount of snow and the great snow pack and we've still got the 500 plus miles of trails, they might as well just keep going," Rinehart said.

The community has also held multiple community wide events throughout the season and has plans to continue to hold many more all the way into late March. One of those events, Rinehart says, brought in record amounts of revenue and people to the area.