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Show Grand Tourist Travel Fared Better Than Most in '69, Survey Indicates Grand County became one of ten counties in Utah to realize more than $1 million from the tourist industry, it was revealed this week in a survey underaken by Utah State University. During the summer of 19G8 a study was undertaken by the Institute for the Study of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism at the University. Results of that study and initial in-itial results from a similar study in the summer of 1969 have been made available through the Utah Travel Council. John D. Hunt and Perry J. Brown of the College of Natural Resources were in charge of the survey and responsible for collecting and evaluating data received from that study. In conducting the study the researchers set up roadblocks at the point where' 18 highways high-ways entered the state. Included In-cluded in this sample was State Highway 47 at Mexican Hat, U. S. Highway 160 at Momticello, and U.S. : 6-50 .at Cisco. Travelers, were - stopped stop-ped as they entered the state (before they had a chance to make any purchase and were given a packet containing con-taining a diary, a letter explaining ex-plaining the study, instructions instruc-tions for filling out the diary, a personal diary form to take home, a Utah' highway map, a Utah leaflet, a Dinosaur Dino-saur hunting license and a litter bag. 11LIC1 Ucig. To Record Trip Costs ; The diary itself . was de-signed de-signed with places to register regis-ter all purchases made by the tourist, take note' of the length of time the tourist spent in the area, with spaces spa-ces for individual. ' income, and number of people in the party. Two vital questions in the survey made in 1968 were: whether or not the visitor had seen or heard any Utah promotional material and whether' or not he had written writ-ten to the Utah Travel Council Coun-cil for information.. In answering these two questions researchers discovered discov-ered that tourists who had seen or heard advertising for Utah tended to stay in the state slightly longer than those who had not. : But those who had written for and received information from the Utah Travel Council, Coun-cil, according - to the report, "not only, did they generally spend more hours, but they also spent more nights in Utah . . . this length of stay was transmitted into grealer . expenditures in Utah, indicating indi-cating a possible positive benefit from Utah's advertising adver-tising program." More, But Spent Less " In comparing the 1969 travel tra-vel season with that of 1968, Travel Council Director Lee Jorgensen stated that the survey showed that "mor-3 visitors came to Utah this past summer, but spent less time and money than visitors did during the summer of 1968." To help keep tourists in the State once they get here the Travel Council is beginning . a number of programs sucn as the Tra-Vel information centers placed along major highway arteries to distribute distrib-ute literature about the various var-ious communities in the . state. There is an increased effort for in-state promotion through travel-writer tours ; and greater emphasis is being be-ing placed on the regional cooperative advertising . programs, pro-grams, as well as working with the state's educational . institutions in conducting tourist seminars, and cooperating coop-erating with other state agencies ag-encies to develop and promote pro-mote tourist facilities. Favorable in Grand , In the case of Grand County, Coun-ty, the figures were more favorable than for much of a the state, in that Grand became be-came one of ten counties in Utah to realize over a million mil-lion dollars from the tourist. Actual figures show that there were 3.2 tourists per party in 1969 compared to 3.0 in 1968. Although there was a gain in non-resident travelers, the average expenditure expen-diture per party decreased. The gain in numbers did not set the decrease in average party expenditure and resulted re-sulted in a net loss in total expenditure for the state. In 1968 ' the average tourist party spent $40.81 per day. . In 1959 however, this had decreased to $36.12 per day even though the actual number num-ber of people represented by . that amount had increased. Fewer Nights The study also showed a ' considerable number of tourists tour-ists stayed fewer nights this year than last. In 1968 only ' 22 per cent did not spend ' even one night. In 1969, 27.2 per cent of the people did not spend a night in the state. Fewer people also spent more than one night this year than last, with 29 per cent of the visitors spending spend-ing 2 or more nights in 1968 and only 22.1 per cent spent 2 or more nights this past summer. It was also noted that people who stayed one or more nights spent four and a half times as much as those not spending a night during their visit. In conclusion, the study noted that community efforts ef-forts in counties were b;:-lieved b;:-lieved to account for increased in-creased tourist spending. Other visitation and expenditures expen-ditures data indicated that new areas are joining Utan's traditional tourist areas. "Dinosaurland and Southeastern South-eastern Utah can now be considered major destinations," destina-tions," the report concluded. |
