Utah Lake is already driving tourism dollars. Could it bring in $1 billion?

Utah Lake is fast-growing Utah County’s epicenter, but the lake’s modern economic impact has long been unknown and the lake itself underutilized and mismanaged.

That’s until now, following the Monday release of a first-of-its-kind tourism study that the Utah Lake Authority commissioned.

The lake’s out-of-county visitors spent an estimated $74.3 million last year on lodging, food, recreation and retail, according to the study.

That money, the study concluded, led to $32.4 million in labor income for workers who provide those services, plus $9.1 million in state and local taxes, adding $56.8 million to the total GDP, the study found.

Local officials are hoping to grow these numbers. But until this study, Utah Lake Authority Director Luke Peterson said, there has never been a “real snapshot of honestly anything about the lake.”

“We didn’t have much of an idea about how people actually use the lake,” he said, so there was no baseline to measure growth.

Now, he said, officials have some idea — and they think the lake could support twice the number of visitors.

“You could double the number of people who visit Utah Lake, and I don’t think you would notice a difference,” Peterson said. “That’s how big Utah Lake is.”

He thinks with the right management and enough time, Utah Lake’s economic impact could reach $1 billion a year — closer to the Great Salt’s Lake’s industry-heavy economic impact of $1.9 billion annually.

Spending, taxes and jobs

Most visitors spent money on food — at local restaurants and otherwise — during their trips. Those who didn’t spring for lodging ended up spending more on renting boats and other recreational equipment, as well as parking and marina access.

Each “visitor-day,” someone recreating at Utah Lake who does not stay overnight typically will spend $45.88, the study found. Someone who visits and also rents lodging spends about $71.59 a day.

All together, those visits amount to the $74.3 million annual total.

The lake also generates $9.2 million a year in taxes — $4.1 million for local governments and $5.1 million for the state, the study found.

Visitation also supported 823 part-time and full-time jobs in the county, the study found, including nearly 600 jobs in direct tourism, like in lodging and food.

Economic impact likely higher

Peterson said he thinks that the authority’s recently launched campaign to dispel stereotypes and welcome people back to the lake will naturally result in people spending more money there, even without the planned projects that will bring more amenities.

“I get the sense that people are happy to have permission to enjoy Utah Lake,” Peterson said. “There has been a cultural stigma floating around it for decades, and I feel like we’ve opened space for people to go, ‘Yeah, I’d love to go enjoy this lake that’s like 10 minutes from my house.’”

He mentioned an interaction he had with a Utah County resident at the Freedom Festival on July 4. The man said the campaign helped him realize the newly revamped American Fork Marina was about a mile from his home. He bought a boat and Jet Skis and is on the lake most days, he told Peterson.

“I was like, ‘Alright, you’re my poster child,’” Peterson recalled.

It’s especially promising, Peterson said, because this study wouldn’t have caught that man’s change of heart, since it only looked at out-of-county visitor spending.

With perceptions of the lake changing — and because, historically, most of the lake’s visitors have lived within the county — Peterson said it’s likely that the lake’s true economic impact is higher than this study shows.

Even then, he said, the authority’s true goal isn’t economic impact. Instead, he said, the mission is maintaining and improving the the lake itself.

Right now, with carp removal and other efforts to repair its ecosystem, the lake is healthier than it’s been in a century, he said.

“It’s never going to be a giant blue lake, right? It’s never going to be that,” Peterson said. “I do hope that one day it will be a clear lake.”