SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s tourism industry generated nearly $12 billion in visitor spending last year, and there are no signs that it’s slowing down anytime soon, which is creating potentially new opportunities to experience the state, tourism experts say.
Preliminary 2022 tourism data shows that last year’s spending eclipsed the previous record of $11.7 billion set in 2019, though record inflation is partly responsible for that, according to updated data released by the University of Utah Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute Wednesday morning. This supported over 150,000 statewide jobs and generated an estimated $2.12 billion in tax revenue.
The institute is still crunching last year’s numbers before a final report is released.
While visitation to Utah’s national and state parks dropped closer to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, the state’s ski resorts blossomed as a result of an early and long ski season and record snowfall in Utah’s mountains. At least 12 of the state’s 15 resorts broke visitation records, Ski Utah officials reported in June.
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Written by CARTER WILLIAMS, KSL.com.