“Certainly in the last five to seven years, arts and entertainment and big concerts, big venue concerts, have been a huge part of our entertainment revenue,” Kier said. “All of the large facilities that have been built up and have had a ton of momentum built over the past several years are sitting empty all summer. There’s no question that’s been a hit for us.”

Restaurant and hotel spending in Montana, based on debit and credit card use, is off 41.9%, seasonally adjusted, since January with the steepest drop starting March 15, the week that major Montana events, like high school basketball tournaments were canceled and public schools started closing. During the state-imposed shutdown of nonessential businesses in April, hotel and restaurant spending was down 70%, or worse, from where it was in January, according to Opportunity Insights. Non-essential businesses started closing March 26. Selected businesses started reopening April 27.

Airport data tells another part of the travel slump affecting leisure and hospitality businesses. Passenger numbers at the airport in Billings were actually better during the first two months of the year than they had been for the same months the year before.

Then in March the numbers crashed; total passengers in Billings numbered 40,019 in March compared to 70,000 for the same month the year before. April and May, passengers were down 93% and 81% respectively. In June, the disparity was still bad. There were 27,338 passengers at the Billings airport in June, compared to 90,085 in June 2019 a 69.7% decline.