Overcrowding among concerns at Utah Tourism Conference

By Brice Wallace 

While Utah benefits from international travelers wanting an “authentic” American experience, a dip in the U.S. market share for international visitation and concerns about “over-tourism” could spell trouble for the state’s tourism industry.

Speaking in Salt Lake City, Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, said that while the U.S. had 76 million international visitors last year, international travelers since 2015 have been inclined to visit other destinations in the world. While the U.S. figure was up 1 percent from the prior year, most of the rest of the world saw increases of 6 percent to 8 percent. {mprestriction ids="1,3"}The U.S. market share loss equates to 1 1/2 percent, representing about 8 million visitors, a $40 billion impact to the economy and 120,000 jobs, he said.

“There’s a lot of talk in Washington these days about bringing manufacturing back to America,” Dow said at the Utah Tourism Conference, presented by the Utah Tourism Industry Association, the Utah Office of Tourism and Visit Salt Lake. “Well, if we just get back that 1 1/2 percent, do you realize that’s 30 Toyota plants? That’s 2 1/2 Amazon headquarters? Just by turning the dial a little bit. And you don’t have to build the hotels, you don’t have to build the national parks, you don’t have to build the airports. They’re all there, and I think that’s so, so important.”

That market share loss since 2015 has stemmed in part from a stronger dollar making it more expensive for people to travel to the U.S., some international economies weakening, and a proliferation of low-cost carriers in Europe making it less expensive and more accessible to fly to destinations there, he said.

International visitors’ importance to the tourism industry is clear, based on several statistics, Dow said. Last year, that 76 million spent $260 billion in the U.S. On average, the average international visitor to the U.S. spends 18 nights on a trip, spends $4,400 per person each visit, and is 71 percent more likely to feel very good about America and American policy.

“The other thing we’re seeing that’s so good for Utah is travelers around the world are saying they want to see the authentic America,” Dow said. “They want to see the national parks, they want to see the outdoors, they want to go to the experiences . Yeah, they want to go to Disneyland and Disney World, but they want to now get outside and see the real America and all the things to see in the great outdoors. So, I think that bodes well for you.”

Among Dow’s concerns regarding domestic travel is tourists overwhelming locations to the point that locals are starting to be turned off by the huge crowds. That’s true in Iceland, parts of Spain, the Sedona area of Arizona, The Hamptons and Utah, he said.

“A word that you’re hearing a lot or you’re probably going to start hearing a lot here in Utah is over-tourism. … People are saying, ‘We don’t want those tourists. There’s too many of them. Tell them not to come here.’ And it’s important that we really work on what is the balance between tourism and the economy and what they contribute,” Dow said.

“So it’s how to get the balance, how to get these folks not only just to look at the places they’ve always come to in Utah, but how to move them out to the other counties, how to explore the rest of Utah and find other places and new venues and all of that, and get to see more of what the state has to offer, so that way everybody wins.”

Natalie Gochnour, director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah and the chief economist at the Salt Lake Chamber, listed congestion among her worries for the Utah tourism industry. Congestion exists in urban centers, St. George, canyons and national parks, she said.

“It’s really, I think, catching the eyes of residents, changing their behavior, and I’m sure it’s also affecting our visitors,” Gochnour said.

Dow also said the tourism industry is suffering from the U.S. becoming a “no-vacation nation.” In 2000, the average American used more than 20 days of vacation a year. That figure is now about 16 days, and the nation's workers’ total unused vacation days now stands at 662 million.

While Utah tourism spending has reached $9.1 billion annually and the state has about 148,000 tourism-related jobs, Gochnour said she believes Utah’s tourism industry is at an inflexion point. While the state is prosperous in many ways, including leading the U.S. in job growth and with leisure and hospitality being the second-fastest-growing major industry during the past year, there are concerns beyond over-tourism. Among them are that eight rural counties — traditionally reliant on energy production as their main economic driver — are now economically contracting. But tourism represents an opportunity for them, she said.

“And it’s creating a very interesting dynamic because they don’t really know what to do about it because it’s been, like, nine years since the Great Recession,” she said. “They don’t know what to do about it. It doesn’t look like energy prices are coming back anytime soon. They’re higher than they were, but we live in a new environment for natural resources, and I’m seeing more of a willingness to think in a more-imaginative, expansive way about how tourism can help these counties.”

Overall, Dow described tourism as a strong but fragile industry. The aftermath of the 9/11 tragedies proved that the industry can be “brought to its knees,” he said. “And we began to understand how related travel and tourism is to the global economy, how everything that happens around the world kind of starts when people make a trip.”

When people travel, they spur economic development in many ways, he said, including at restaurants, for entertainment and sports, at retail outlets and small businesses, and even in manufacturing, construction, real estate, financial services and education.

“Nothing happens until someone first goes on a trip,” Dow said. “We’re the front door of economic development.”{/mprestriction}