Tourists ignorant of Utah

Utah has nowhere to go but up when it comes to branding the state for tourists. A nationwide survey on Utah's image shows that tourists don't have a negative perception of the state — they just don't have much of a perception at all.

Images that Utah residents always thought defined their state — the golden spike at Promontory Point, Delicate Arch at Arches National Park and the Salt Lake City skyline — apparently aren't all that identifiable with Utah.

Pictures of those locations and six others that tourism officials always considered iconic to Utah were more closely associated with surrounding states, according to the survey's findings, which were released Tuesday.

"It's shocking," said Bob Syret, a Utah Board of Tourism Development member.

The results of the survey underscore what tourism officials say is a difficult road ahead to regain Utah's share of the domestic tourism market, which has steadily eroded in the past decade even after hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics.

"One of the issues is that our icons are not yet our icons," said Denise Miller, vice president of Strategic Marketing & Research Inc., which conducted the survey for the Utah Office of Tourism.

The only images survey respondents picked as being located in Utah more than other states were pictures of the Olympic Park skeleton race track and of Zion National Park. But even the selection of Zion National Park as being in Utah can be misleading. So many survey respondents put the park in one of 10 other Western states that Utah received the greatest concentration of votes at 19.7 percent, Miller said.

The lack of familiarity with Utah is bad news for a state banking on its five national parks and other outdoor activities to be a major component of its effort to lure outdoor enthusiasts for a vacation.

"We're kind of a blind date to people," said tourism board member Colin Fryer.

The state is banking on a new advertising campaign to help brand the state and improve its image and recall among consumers, particularly adventure travelers who earn more than $75,000 a year. A new slogan — Utah: Life Elevated — replaces Utah! Where ideas connect.

Many of the ads that will run nationally as part of the campaign depict several locations that people surveyed said they believed were in other states.

Tourism is a growing $5.45 billion industry in Utah that attracted more than 18.2 million visitors in 2005, an increase of 4 percent. But Utah's domestic travel market share has declined from .86 percent to .75 percent in the past decade.