Salt Lake City benefits from one of the busiest airports in the western U.S. and a strategic location near several landmarks and tourist attractions, including the Mighty 5. Transient demand to the city surged in 2021 as Utah became a popular drive-to leisure destination, but commercial travel continues to lag behind 2019 levels, similar to the rest of the nation. Commercial demand is expected to return fully by year-end 2023 or the beginning of 2024. Nonetheless, the city has enjoyed increases in demand as the local economy has recovered from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Most notably, the market has enjoyed a significant increase in ADR levels, especially thus far in 2022. In addition to the overall strength of the local economy, Salt Lake City has become a focal point for new development in recent years.
Print by Tavernier and Frenzeny, courtesy of Claudine Chalmers and Exhibit Envoy
In 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant had recently signed legislation designating Yellowstone the first National Park. The Jesse James Gang conducted their first successful train robbery and only 37 states made up the United States of America. In between the 34 eastern states and the three western states of Nevada, California and Oregon was a massive and mysterious frontier for white Americans.
Public curiosity of the wild west had already begun, but the completion of the Transcontinental Railway, at Promontory, Utah, in 1869 allowed access to and through this huge expanse of land.