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SALT LAKE CITY — Want adventure? You might as well stay in-state, a new survey from a travel website says.
The survey, compiled by Trover, serendipitously came from an adventure photo contest the website had teamed up with clothing company Eddie Bauer to complete, according to company officials.
They asked people to submit photos from their favorite adventure spots. When they noticed most came from U.S. national parks, the contest turned into finding out where the majority of “#adventure” posts were coming from to create a list of where people are going in the U.S. for adventure.
They found nearly 15% of the posts were from spots in California, which snagged the top spot. Utah snagged the second spot, taking 12.4% of the posts. Colorado, Alaska and Arizona rounded out the top five.
The company also listed the eight most popular national parks for adventure, which included Arches and Zion national parks as second and third. Yosemite National Park had the top spot. Rocky Mountain, Grand Canyon, Glacier, Yellowstone and Mount Rainier were also in the top eight.
The company's results seem to play into tourism data released by the University of Utah Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s 2018 “State of Utah’s Travel and Industry” last week that found Utah’s role in outdoor tourism continues to grow as more people venture into the state's outdoors.
According to the report, a record 10.6 million people attended Utah’s five national parks in 2018 — nearly double the number of visitors 20 years ago. Another 6.7 million people visited Utah’s state parks.
The report also found that tourism generated $9.75 billion in visitor spending, generated $1.28 billion in tax revenue for the state, and contributed to 5.4% of the state’s 2018 gross domestic product. It also found that national parks led to about 18,700 jobs in the state, is among the most in the country.
