Utah tourism officials foresee better summer

SALT LAKE CITY — Traveling for fun is one of the first things chopped from the family budget during a major recession, but Utah tourism officials say this summer is still looking a little better than last year's.

"The forecast for this summer is a gradual increase in tourism overall," said Shawn Stinson, director of communications for the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Nothing drastic … but a positive trend."

The bureau expects a 1 percent to 2 percent increase in the number of hotel rooms booked, which is how it tracks visitors.

"We took a substantial hit in 2009," Stinson said, noting that hotel-room bookings plummeted to 306,000, compared to 460,000 in 2008.

The goal for this year is 390,000 bookings.

"We're cautiously optimistic but realistic at the same time," he said.

Travel trends are difficult to predict — besides the struggles of the U.S. economy and general belt-tightening for businesses and families, those in the tourism industry track such things as the state of the euro, troubles in Asia and Korea, oil spills, gas costs and other factors.

In the U.S., however, there may be a sense that after the forced frugality of the past three years, it's finally time for a family vacation or for businesses to bring their employees together again.

"We are booking conventions pretty far out into the future," Stinson said. "We have one in 2021, which is looking good. We have others for 2013, 2015."

Negotiations also are under way for the highly lucrative, twice-yearly Outdoor Retailer conventions, and the bureau is seeking to book those through 2014.

Stinson points out that the Outdoor Retailers alone pour $35 million a year into the area's economy, starting with hotel rooms, car rentals and restaurants, and rippling out to such things as photocopy shops.

Two other hopeful signs are how well the bureau's Ski Salt Lake Super and Visit Salt Lake Connect passes are faring.

The bureau sold $3.5 million worth of ski passes, which provide lift tickets to Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude resorts — which is up from $3.2 million the previous year.

People also have purchased $22,000 worth of Visit Salt Lake Connect passes from January through April of this year, which is a 134 percent increase over last year. The passes offer one-day visits to 13 recreation spots.