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Show : inal Survey on Summer Tourists !hovs Nine Percent Gain for Utah ,'Vv-'J a uu'wu-e hi IC'tOI' i !lU 'i' ,S jlllJ CH'llilUU'S tOC ' . :;f ijil.ii '.l'l' Ills I'. It'. .". s:.:'"'-'' i' quarter, Il'i'in June through August, survey W-IS piep.Ucd by I'lal, Si;u' I lUNClMtV ISSlU-a t0 M,. I'1'! 1- Wi-iUMiiiumn, K,vu-tuo K,vu-tuo Director, Department of lVu'lo.llK'lll Services, for the l liili Travel Cotiiit'il. The report reflects only tli. iso expenditures from the moii resident molor vehicle visitor and does not include commrecial ;iir, bus or resident resi-dent tourism. The 11)71 .siimmor total visitors vis-itors numbered -1,213,800 pco-pTe pco-pTe who spent $ol,!)li!,-100 a gain of nine per cent over the same period for 11)70 which indicates 3.!I95,:!00 peo. pie leaving ?5t),2'.)tl,l!OU in the slate. "With the national trend limning at 5,(! per cent aver, age gain for the summer quarter, we are pleased to record our increase at 9 per cent," reports I.ce Jorgcnson, director of the I'tah Travel Council. The survey methodology employed by I'SU has proved to be the most accurate and technically correct system in the country. "In fact," Jor-gensen Jor-gensen reports, "this system is being copied by many other slates and institutions." Dr. Hunt's program includes teams of students with assistance assis-tance from the I'tah Depart-nunt Depart-nunt of Highways. The teams step non resident vehicles, hand out personal diaries, and ask visitors to complete the diary and return it to I'Sl' for studies. Data from the resonses are computerised computer-ised and the report printed for analysis. The report indicates the average length of stay at 1.4 days. "This is, quite frankly our big problem," Jorgensen stated. "We get plenty of non-resident visitors. but we've got to do more work to keep them here longer and we are instituting new programs pro-grams to do exactly that," l.e continued. The survey goes on to indicate in-dicate that the majority of Utah's tourists come from the mountain states with California providing 30 per cent of the total. The USU s'.udy also shows a growing trend from the mid west. Twenty three per cent of the tourists came to Utah in some combination of recreation recrea-tion vehicle including car and trailer, pickup, camper, trailer, etc. The top five attractions were Salt Lake City area, 4G.1 per cent; Zion National Park, 21.8 per cent; Bryce Canyon, 13.6 per cent; Great Salt Lake, 147 per cent; and Dinosaur Di-nosaur National Monument, 12 per cen'- The Travel Council has divided the state into nine multi-county tourist promotional promo-tional regions and the Golden Gold-en Spike Empire region (Box Elder, Davis, Morgan and Weber Counties) recorded the largest expenditure gain with an increase of $2,102,-300 $2,102,-300 and Weber County, in that 'same region, showing the largest county expenditure expendi-ture increase in the state of $1,359,100. While seven of the nine regions showed an increase, the county with the biggest decrease was Salt Lake County dropping from $20,-269 $20,-269 600 in 1970's summer quar-ter' quar-ter' to $18,967,200 for the same period in 1971. While the USU surveys reflect re-flect important economics in Utah's tourism effort; the study is also used to help guide the Travel Council in placing advertising to attract at-tract the non-resident visitor. "Tourism today is an extremely ex-tremely competitive business with other states who have recognized the economic benefit be-nefit from this new and clean expenditure and we must continue our efforts to attract at-tract this economy," Jorgensen Jorgen-sen stated. Members of the Utah Travel Tra-vel Council board assigned from around the state to assist as-sist in Travel Council programs pro-grams include Kenneth Sow-ards" Sow-ards" chairman, Vernal; Murray Mur-ray Moley, vice chairman, Ogden; Jack Croft, Logan; Robert Temple, Salt Lake City; Homer Bandley, Richfield; Rich-field; Jim Black, Monticello;7 and Neal Lundberg, St. George. |