The "Adventure Planner" on its Web site, www.utah.travel, lets online visitors check for a variety of things they might want to do, and places they might want to stay or to eat, while traveling to one of three Utah regions (north, central or south) or to individual communities.

Developed for the Tourism Office by Struck, its Salt Lake City advertising agency, the interactive feature has access to all information in the 168-page Utah Travel Guide's database.

"We believe travelers planning their itineraries will find the site an indispensable travel planning tool," said Tourism Office managing director Leigh von der Esch. "Out-of-state travelers, which include international visitors, will no longer have to wait for printed materials to arrive in the mail."

Like other states in the competitive tourism world, Utah developed this tool in response to an increasingly computer savvy population.

Research by Peter Yesawich, a consultant whose National Travel Monitor is watched closely by the industry, 83 percent of travelers use the Internet when planning trips: 59 percent depended entirely on their own research and 24 percent use a travel agency to supplement their Internet research.

While only 33 percent of people made online reservations in 2002, 59 percent did so last year. Yesawich attributed the increase to "the tumultuous days after 9/11 [2001]" when online travel agencies were "given lots of [hotel] rooms to market. That brought a lot of people to the online market for the first time."

The change has been evident at the Tourism Office, said spokeswoman Tracie Cayford. Phone calls seeking copies of the Travel Guide have decreased steadily while online orders have increased. "There's been a clear trend," she added.

So the utah.travel Web site is evolving with the times, adding the Adventure Planner to a Web site that still lets visitors order a printed Travel Guide, watch videos or flip through a book of scenic Utah shots.

The planner breaks the state down in a number of ways to let visitors pinpoint their interests.

They can focus on regions, specific cities, national parks, wilderness areas, scenic byways, recreation areas, monuments or resorts.

Among things to do, visitors can look at 10 categories of activities, from biking, wildlife adventures and water sports to winter activities, Olympic legacy facilities and golfing.

"I see this as being for people who want to do research and dig in deeper. . . . There's definitely good going to come out of this added exposure," said Kay Giles, director of Kane County's Office of Tourism, even though an initial check of her area's assets found some missing.

"This is just being launched," Cayford acknowledged.

"If anyone notices problems, let us know. The site will get better as time goes on. We can fix things quickly. That's one beauty of the Internet compared to a printed guide."

mikeg@sltrib.com