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Show State Tourist Information Bureau Tells Utah's Story to Thousands How would you' like to receive 80,000 letters a year? And on top of that, answer each one practically practic-ally In return mail. t This Is part of the Utah Tourist Tour-ist and Publicity Council's operation oper-ation In the State Capitol. Each year some 80,000 requests for information in-formation on Utah are received by the office. And each year 80,-000 80,-000 letters with information on the scenic wonders of the Beehive Bee-hive State go out to these prospective pros-pective visitors. Headed by D. James Cannon, director, the staff of five who man the tourist office are almost constantly busy mailing out maps, brochures, folders, films, slides and photographs to inform out-of -staters about the wonders of Utah. The office also keeps a complete com-plete file of requests, coding them as to what prompted them advertisements In national magazines, ma-gazines, public service time on TV stations, travel agency requests re-quests or word -of -mouth promotion. promo-tion. A great storehouse of Information Informa-tion about Utah is slocked in the Tourist Council office, which will soon move into new quarters in the restored Salt Lake City hall across the street from the Capitol. Capi-tol. Perhaps the most prominent single piece of literature made available to prospective tourists is the 36-pape, full-color booklet book-let entitled "The Different World of Utah." Currently the office has published pub-lished regional folders on different differ-ent areas of the Beehive State which are also distributed along with the regular mailings. ' During the year soms 250,000 to 300,000 folders, pa-nphlets. and brochures are sent by the office. A vast variety of subjects from the breath-takingly scenic national parks tand monuments to the famed Utah ski slopes are covered completely In the literature. In addition to regular requests from tourists, which amount to 50.000 a year, the council receives re-ceives an average of 30,000 requests re-quests a year from children desiring de-siring information for special school projects. A special school packet for children has been put together because of the volume vol-ume of requests. An extentive file of 16 mm movies mo-vies is kept at the council, and the film program is just getting i started. The full color and sound clubs, fraternal organizations and educational television. Authors desiring photographs often resort to the complete file of black and white, and color pictures. Encyclopedias use the photographs too, as well as other information supplied by the council. To supplement the vast supply sup-ply of booklets, folders and brochures, bro-chures, the council has its own multilith program for printing low-cost literature. While answering requests for literature is perhaps the chief job, the council staff members have occasion to pass on helpful nformation to other state agencies agen-cies such as the Industrial and Employment planning Commission. Commis-sion. Right now the staff is plenty busy. But Mrs. Van Pelt says the real busy season is Just ahead. From January to May, the Council gets into high gear In supplying individuals and organizations organ-izations with information about the summer tourist season in the state. Other tourist council staffers include Ward Roylance, Vickie Haycock and Roger Underwood. |