Join the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce at Cedar Creek Lodge on Tuesday, November 10th, 2026 from 11:30 - 1:00pm for our Chamber membership luncheon. Registration fee includes the featured presentation and a catered lunch.
Featured Presentations from Western Montana's Glacier Country and MT Department of Commerce, Destination MT Division
Title: The Visitor Dollar at Work
Description: Nonresident visitors spend $5.36 billion a year in Montana, including $834 million in Flathead County. Most of that stays with the businesses where it's spent. Lodging carries a combined 8% in state lodging taxes on top, and where that revenue lands surprises most people. A look at how visitor spending works and what those taxes actually fund.
Bio: Racene Friede is President CEO of Western Montana's Glacier Country, the official destination organization serving the eight-county travel region known as Glacier Country, a role she has held since 2007. She started on the chamber side in the 1990s as CVB coordinator for the Bozeman Area Chamber of Commerce and has spent 26 of her 32 years in the destination organization space. She is a founding member and board chair of Voices of Montana Tourism and a founding member and program facilitator of Tourism Matters to Montana. She speaks regularly on how Montana's visitor economy works and how the industry is funded.
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Title: Tourism Lunch & Learn, Montana Department of Commerce, Destination MT Division
Presenter: Taylor Tidwell, Tourism Partner Grant Coordinator
Presentation Description: Learn more about Destination MT’s strategic goals, use and success stories of bed tax funding, programs and how to leverage funding for your community’s economic resilience and development.
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Featured Caterer: Backslope Brewing
Luncheon Cost:
Register by noon on Monday, November 9th, 2026 to be guaranteed lunch.
