Utah overestimated tourism numbers

State officials, when deriving their estimates on the number of tourists who came here, overestimated the number of visitors who flew into Utah last year during a global economic meltdown.

The Governor's Office of Economic Development said in a news release this week that 20.4 million visitors came to Utah in 2008, an increase of about 200,000 people from the year before.

But an Associated Press review of Salt Lake City International Airport passenger statistics shows state officials overestimated the number of passengers who flew into Utah last year by more than 200,000 people.

David Williams, deputy director of the Utah Office of Tourism, said it's unclear what the final impact of the passenger-traffic discrepancy will be. He said that's because not all of those 200,000 passengers would be considered tourists, and his office will also have to examine final automobile-traffic numbers to get a better sense of what the total number of visitors are.

"When you're talking 20 million people, maybe a change of 100,000 or so is not that big of an impact," he said. "My sense is, it's not going to change it very much, one way or another."

The news release issued by GOED on Monday touting the growth in tourism last year cites statistics that Williams' team compiled for the 2009 Economic Report to the Governor, which was issued Jan. 9. That report uses data from several sources, including airport-passenger traffic, to derive its estimates. The reports notes that those statistics can change once final numbers are in.

Williams said estimates on airport and automobile traffic are made for the report in November.

The airport released final passenger statistics for 2008 on Jan. 28. Airport statistics were revised again in February to note an increase of about 2,000 passengers, but those figures are still far off from the tourism department's estimates.

It is unclear how much the incorrect numbers impact state estimates that tourist spending increased by more than $400 million last year to $7.1 billion.

In 2007, the Utah Office of Tourism estimated that overnight leisure travelers spent $101 a day and stayed an average of five days.

GOED spokesman Michael Sullivan said that his news release was intended to share good news about Utah's economy, and he was unaware of the discrepancy in airport-passenger statistics.

"Even with high fuel costs being passed on to consumers in the form of higher airfare and other travel costs, Utah's Office of Tourism reported that 20.4 million people visited the state in 2008," the release said.