Tourism board giving Delta $400,000 for Tokyo flights

The Utah Board of Tourism Development on Monday allocated $400,000 to encourage Delta Air Lines to start direct flights between Salt Lake City International Airport and Tokyo.

Those funds — plus monies from the Governor's Office of Economic Development Board, the airport and Salt Lake County — will be used to develop a marketing plan for the flights. The total incentive package is $2 million.

Leigh von der Esch, managing director of the Utah Office of Tourism, said Utah's trade representative for Japan, Osamu Hoshino, is excited to promote the flights, with Salt Lake City serving as the gateway to Yellowstone in the north and the "Grand Circle" — which includes parts of five states — to the south.

Delta has estimated that the new service could have an overall economic impact of $90 million for Utah and could lead to the creation of 1,100 local jobs.

Several agencies combined to encourage Delta direct flights between Salt Lake and Paris. That service began in June and has had planes more than 80 percent full.