Alcohol sales zoom 62%

The percentage of LDS members who consider themselves "very active" in their religion also may be decreasing. Longtime Utah pollster Dan Jones said that over the past 20 years, he has noticed a trend where fewer LDS members consider themselves "very active," while more consider themselves "somewhat active."

A survey he conducted for the Deseret Morning News and KSL last month showed that 83 percent of those LDS members questioned considered themselves "very active," 12 percent considered themselves "somewhat active" and 5 percent considered themselves "not active."

Otterstrom also suggests that the increasing number of tourists to the state could be partially behind the increased drinking figures.

In 1996, Utah had 17 million visitors from out of state. In 2005, it had 18.2 million — an increase of 7.1 percent, according to the Utah Office of Tourism.

Wynn adds, "After the Olympics, we were discovered. There are more tourists. The Sundance Film Festival got bigger. It used to be that after Sundance, it would slow down here and my guys in the warehouse could take some time off. But it isn't that way anymore." Attendance at the Sundance festival went from 15,500 in 1996 to 53,000 in 2006.

Leigh von der Esch, director of the Utah Office of Tourism, said of the increase in per-person alcohol consumption: "Absolutely, I think tourists are tied to it."

But she said another development may have even more to do with it: an increase in the number of restaurants with liquor licenses. Wynn added, "I'd guess that maybe there is a quarter more licenses" that have gone to restaurants in the past decade.

"I enjoy an occasional glass of wine," von der Esch said. "The selection in most restaurants is much better than it was years ago, so maybe more people decide to enjoy a drink. ... When we have Wine Spectator magazine choose the Blue Boar restaurant (in Heber) as its favorite restaurant anywhere, you know there have been changes here."

Wynn also said that while the state has added only a couple of liquor stores in the past decade, many have been expanded — sometimes doubling in size — to offer a wider variety of products.

"And people are tending to buy up" to higher-priced beverages, he said. "Instead of buying a bottle of tequila for $15, they are buying a bottle for $40 or $50."

Wynn adds he does not well understand why that is happening. "I don't know if it is better, or if it is the prestige of buying more expensive items," he said. But he said that is helping to increase profits and taxes collected.

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E-mail: lee@desnews.com