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Utah Wants More Cash From Out-of-State Tourists

The importance of out-of-state visitors to Utah’s economy is without dispute: nonresidents spend an average of $101 daily, residents just $65.
Out-of-staters also stay longer, typically spending 3.2 nights in a lodging establishment compared with 1.4 nights for Utahns. Overall, taxes paid by visitors lessen a Utah family’s tax burden by $475 a year.

BY MIKE GORRELL
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

Consequently, state officials are interested in how efficient the Utah Division of Travel Development is in attracting out-of-state tourists to come to Utah as opposed to promoting in-state tourism.

A bill that directs the division to collect and analyze data for that purpose, in conjunction with an already mandated survey of the economic benefits of tourism-promotion activities utilizing tax dollars, was endorsed without dissent Wednesday by the Legislature’s Workforce Services and Community & Economic Development Interim Committee.

Division Director Dean Reeder indicated he had no problem with doing such an analysis, although he noted that the draft bill’s language would require the results to be included in an annual report to the Legislature.
Since the type of data needed for an efficiency study has been collected every three years up to now, rather than annually, additional money would have to be appropriated to cover the costs of more frequent surveys.

Economic efficiency certainly is the division’s goal, Reeder said. It has a goal of increasing that family tax support from $475 annually to almost $1,000. The best way to reach that target is to tap out-of-staters and international visitors.

"We need new money, fresh money to put into the Utah pot," he said. "It’s not bad to stir the pot [with in-state tourism dollars] but better to freshen it" with outsiders’ money.

With that in mind, Reeder said he was overjoyed the other day to see 20 Japanese tourists arrive at Salt Lake City International Airport for a ski vacation. "I just wanted to hug them because international visitors are so sparse — for reasons we all know," he said, referring to the dramatic drop-off in tourism following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
These Japanese tourists were here because of Utah’s most efficient marketing tool, he added, the publicity generated by the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Karen Silver, an advocate with the Salt Lake Community Action Program, asked division officials to look at child care. Not only is it an enticement to visitors, but it also is crucial for hospitality industry staff members.

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http://www.sltrib.com/11212002/business/3816.htm

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