Strong travel signaling 'Utah is back'

By Brice Wallace

People, and Utah’s economy, are on the move.

Statistics indicate that travel and tourism are among the economic sectors bolstering Utah’s rebound in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The busy Fourth of July travel weekend is a great sign that our travel and tourism industry is making a strong comeback,” Robert Spendlove, Zions Bank senior economist, said during an economic forecast news conference last week. “A boost in summer travel will have far-reaching impacts on our economy, bringing back jobs and stimulating additional growth.”

Bill Wyatt, Salt Lake City International Airport executive director, was more succinct. “Salt Lake is definitely back. The airport is back. Flying is back,” Wyatt said over the din of the hustle and bustle of the airport, where the news conference was held.

Spendlove noted that the past year was difficult for Utah and the U.S. because of the pandemic. “However, it’s exciting to see that travel is returning to our state,” he said.

Utah travel industry is expected to be buoyed by a strong July 4 weekend nationwide. AAA is expecting the travel figures nationally to reach 48 million, which would be the second-highest July 4 volume on record and an increase of 40 percent from a year ago.

Most holiday travelers hit the road, with an estimated 44 million driving to their destinations, while 3.5 million went by air. That would be 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels and represents an increase of 164 percent over last year.

On June 27, the Salt Lake airport had 26,000 passengers come through its front doors and get on planes, “and that is pretty much where we would have been a year and a half ago,” Wyatt said.

“I would expect this summer, despite the lack of international travel, despite reduced business travel for some period of time, nevertheless I’m confident we’ll see some record-breaking days.”

The airport has experienced “a pretty remarkable year,” Wyatt said. In a two-week period last spring when the pandemic hit, the facility saw its traffic fall 90 percent. With vaccines and a pent-up urge to travel, it has rebounded.

“I think I can say comfortably now that we’re pretty much back to where we were pre-pandemic in Salt Lake,” Wyatt said.

He surmised that Salt Lake’s relatively strong economic performance during the pandemic was because people wanted to be outdoors and feel safe, which Utah could provide. Utah also benefited by having two tourist seasons, summer and winter. And the airport’s renovations have contributed strongly to the construction industry and keeping the Salt Lake Valley’s unemployment rate at less than 3 percent.

Spendlove cited several statistics showing the importance of the travel and tourism industry to the state’s economy. A study by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute indicates that visitors to Utah spent more than $10 billion in 2019. More than nine in 10 were domestic travelers.

Travel and visitor spending supports more than 141,000 jobs in Utah, including 94,000 direct and 47,000 indirect/induced jobs, or one in every 11 jobs in the state. In the southwest parts of the state, leisure and hospitality account for more than 43 percent of private-sectors jobs.

Meanwhile, the airport’s travel total in 2019 was about 27 million people. The air industry in the state employs more than 7,000 people who earn a collective $700 million a year, and travel and tourism generates over $1 billion a year in state and local tax revenues.

An indicator of higher levels of travel is visitation to state parks. In 2020, it reached 10.6 million, up 33 percent and surpassing the number of visitors to Utah’s national parks for the first time ever.

“And while the number of people visiting Utah’s national parks dropped down to 7.7 million in 2020, we’ve seen a strong resurgence in demand in the past few months,” Spendlove said.

Likewise, the number of skier-days in Utah during the past season topped 5.3 million, a record amount.

“These statistics show that not even a global pandemic could keep people away from all our state has to offer,” Spendlove said.

A penchant for more international travel can be seen at Zions Bank branches, which are seeing an increase in people coming in to get foreign currency “as travel begins to reopen,” he said. And Salt Lake City should benefit from much of Temple Square reopening. It typically attracts 3 million to 5 million people a year but was closed last year. The Conference Center opened in June, several other buildings opened last week and a couple of others will do so Aug. 2.

Spendlove said the business side of tourism continues to recover, although much more slowly than the leisure side of travel. On the plus side, several business conferences are booked for Salt Lake City later this year, including some relocating from other cities because Utah’s COVID recovery has been so strong, he added.

“It will take some time for business travel to fully recover from the effects of the pandemic,” he said, “but the future is looking very bright for that industry.”