The Black Hills and Badlands Tourism Association held their 85th annual conference Wednesday, and looking back on the last fiscal year showed that some wheels have been stuck in the mud.
Particularly, hotel occupancy is down by over 1.5 percent compared to last year, and short-term rentals also saw a dip over 2025. Meanwhile overall earnings did increase by over 2 percent, a factor likely connected to inflation.
Michelle Thompson is the president of the region’s tourism association.
“2025 has definitely been a mixed bag," Thompson said. "Overall, our visitor spending is up just a little bit, but certainly businesses across the Black Hills – some are down, a majority are about even, and some are up a little bit. Looking forward to 2026, there is a lot of optimism.”
Those numbers translate to a 2025 that’s not going into the record books.
“We know that potentially the numbers of visitors coming here is less than last year or flat to last year,” Thompson said.
That could be connected to several factors, including inflation and economic policies from Washington, particularly tariffs.
There is a bright point though – the Black Hills remain a destination for outdoor recreation across the nation. This year saw a noted increase in National Parks visitation. Thompson said that means taking forest management and conservation seriously moving forward.
“South Dakota has this amazing program called Forever 605, and we talk about that a lot because we want people to love the Black Hills like a local," Thompson said. "Take care of our places so they’re here for many generations to come for people that live here and people that want to come and experience it.”
The hills were most visited by residents of neighboring states, the Great Lakes, and the southwest. Top spending out-of-state travelers are coming from Denver, Western North Dakota, and the Twin Cities.