Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Rising U.S. vaccination rates are helping drive a resurgence in air travel and hotel bookings around the country but a full recovery for Utah’s $10 billion-a-year travel and tourism industry is likely still years away.
And while Utah’s one-of-a-kind natural assets helped buoy the sector amid COVID-19 conditions that drove unprecedented interest in and travel to outdoor destinations, the state’s urban centers have been hit hardest by the pandemic and will be the slowest to recover.
A late-April economic report from Adobe Analytics found that the wide U.S. deployment of COVID-19 vaccinations combined with fresh cash infusions that went out to most residents through another round of federal stimulus payments is helping drive a travel surge.
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From the most visited national parks in the nation to skiing and urban escapes, Utah’s tourism industry was continuing to grow at a record pace pre-pandemic, increasing by 5.1 percent every year since 2015.
In 2019, Utah tourism saw $10 billion in visitor spending approximately eight percent of that from international visitors, according to the Utah Office of Tourism and $1.34 billion in tourism tax revenue, while state and national parks also experienced record visitation.
Now just weeks shy from the close of its fiscal year 2020, after a full pandemic year and in spite of a big hit to tourism, Utah ranks among six states in the nation that reported increased tax revenues, with its gross domestic product projected to grow by 6.2 percent.
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