‘Tale of two Utahs’: Tourism industry faces uneven recovery
Jan 28, 2022, 6:35 PM | Updated: Jun 7, 2022, 3:34 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — Visitation continues to bounce back in rural areas of the Beehive State, while urban areas continue to struggle during the pandemic, according to industry leaders gathered at the Capitol on Friday for Tourism Day on the Hill.
“We’re not back to 2019 spending levels and it will take us a while to get there,” said Vicki Varela, managing director of the Utah Office of Tourism. “But there really is the tale of two Utahs: the rural economy has started to improve more quickly than the urban because the urban economy depends on the convention goers.”
While downtown areas haven’t seen the return of business and convention travelers, Varela said visitation related to the ski season is going well so far this year.
Representatives from county visitor bureaus and others in the travel economy gathered in the rotunda to meet with lawmakers and discuss the state of the industry.
One area of focus was the state’s Red Emerald Strategic Plan and its accompanying Forever Mighty initiative.
“We are in it for the long game,” Varela said. “We want to create a perpetual tourism economy.”
Varela said the goal is to make sure that tourism benefits local communities and visitors.
“It gets people off the beaten path, helps them understand how to travel responsibly,” Varela said. “The visitor economy is like any other economy — the repeat visitors are the best visitors because they value what we have; they treat it respectfully.”
The Utah Tourism Industry Association co-hosted Friday’s event as a way to explain how tourism helps residents and is a key part of the broader economy.
“There’s a lot of outdoor recreation amenities and assets that have been able to come out of the tourism industry dollars,” said Natalie Randall, the association’s executive director.
Randall said the Red Emerald Strategic Plan is a way to make sure tourism is sustainable.
“Not only looking at the environmental impacts, but also our communities and getting visitors to stay longer, spend more money and invest in the local areas,” she said.
In 2020, Utah’s state parks saw visitation increase 32.5% compared to 2019, according to a report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.
As for priorities for the coming year, Varela said there are discussions to expand outdoor recreation infrastructure in Utah.
