The number of visitors lured to the state by the Utah Office of Tourism's summer promotional campaign declined markedly from the summer of 2007. The amount of money brought into the state by those tourists dropped. The tax return to state and local government for every tax dollar spent on the advertising campaign (about $3.9 million both years) slipped from $17 to $11.
But don't despair, market researcher Denise Miller told the Utah Board of Tourism Development on Thursday. "If you didn't have last year [2007] to compare to, we'd be looking at an $11 return and celebrating."
"I'm still celebrating," said Steve Lindburg, a hotel industry representative on the board, encouraging Tourism Office staff members to assemble the financial figures in a package so legislators can be shown next session how tourism continues to pay off even in a demoralizing economy.
It was clear from repeated references Thursday just how much the global recession is influencing the perspectives of people in the state's multibillion dollar-a-year industry.
"Things have changed so much from last year," said Tourism Office managing director Leigh von der Esch.
Miller, whose Indianapolis-based company, Strategic Marketing & Research Inc., tracks travel patterns for a number of states, said that Utah's situation is "challenging but still fairly promising," even if the public's inclination to take leisure trips is "trending in a not-positive way."
The biggest problem, she said, is that "nobody has been this uncertain in a long time. How long is it going to last? What should we do? . . . You have to be nimble, just like [Treasury] Secretary [Henry] Paulson did. Change as you need to."
Miller was referring to the treasury secretary's announcement that implementation of the $700 billion bailout package will differ from the original plan.
One change she recommended is for future state advertising efforts to put more emphasis on the high "value" of a Utah vacation. The ad campaign still being put together for next summer does just that, said Struck Creative advertising official Steve Driggs, with it building around all the things that can be done on a road trip by car.
Board members agreed it was important to keep pushing the state's message despite the recession. To that end, they lifted a cap on the amount of money an individual tourism group can get in a year from the state's cooperative marketing fund.
That procedural matter will allow Ski Utah, already at the cap, to apply with partners for a matching grant of $85,500 to launch more ads in January.
To help nonwinter areas, the board released $50,000 to translate brochures about Utah into Japanese, Chinese and Korean, and to increase the number of brochures in four European languages.
mikeg@sltrib.com
"Nobody has been this uncertain in a long time. How long is it going to last? What should we do? . . . You have to be nimble, just like
[Treasury] Secretary [Henry] Paulson did. Change as you need to."
DENISE MILLER
Market researcher about changes in the tourism industry
