Visitors spent a record $13.7B in Utah's economy last year, report finds

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

Utah's tourism economy hit a record $13.7B in 2025, up 0.6% from 2024.
Visitor spending generated $1.6B in tax revenue and supported 107,500 jobs.
Economic uncertainty could influence 2026 trends.

SALT LAKE CITY — Despite various challenges in the travel economy, a new report finds that the economic impact from Utah's tourism economy surged to a record $13.7 billion in 2025.

Last year's visitor spending represented a 0.6% increase from 2024, when adjusted for inflation, the University of Utah's Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute noted in a report released on Thursday. That, in turn, generated $1.6 billion in direct state and local tax revenue while supporting approximately a tenth of all jobs in the state.

"Utah's tourism economy demonstrated considerable resilience in 2025. While some of the headline visitation measures declined, visitor spending, employment, and tax generation remained strong, suggesting that Utah's tourism industry is moving into a more normalized environment rather than a broad-based downturn," said Jennifer Leaver, the institute's senior tourism analyst and the report's lead author.

The increase in spending came despite modest declines in statewide hotel occupancy, as well as state and national park visitation. Even Salt Lake City International Airport reported nearly a 1% decrease in total passengers.

Utah also experienced a big drop in visits from two of its biggest international markets. Year-over-year spending from Canada and China visitors was down 22% and 23%, respectively, far exceeding the 6% decline from all other countries altogether.

Some of it is not too much of a surprise. Many Canadians began boycotting the U.S. over tariffs last year, although rising travel costs and currency exchange rates also factored into people canceling trips, Love Communications found in a survey published last summer.

United Kingdom (10%), Australia (5%) and Peru (3%) all had increases in visitation, but it wasn't enough to overcome the gap.

The past ski season is also included in the data, even though most of it is in 2026. Ski Utah reported 4.8 million skier visits over the past season in June, which was a 26% year-over-year decrease, following the state's worst snowpack on record.

Conferences, conventions and events helped stabilize these losses. Downtown Salt Lake City bucked the trend, experiencing increases in hotel occupancy and revenue, as well as events. A 5.9% increase in money from people dining out was reported, the highest among visitor spending types, too.

County transient room tax revenue also increased across most of Utah's counties, "indicating sustained visitor spending activity," the report stated.

"Utah outperformed the nation in year-over-year visitor spending growth, as well as arts/entertainment/recreation and accommodation job growth," its authors added.

Approximately 107,500 jobs were directly supported by the state's visitor economy, while another 59,700 jobs were supported in one way or another, the report noted. Utah experienced a 17% increase in tourism jobs tied to spectator sports, partially tied to the addition of the Utah Mammoth and other new sports teams, but also to events brought in through Salt Lake County's sports tourism wing.

Increases in performing arts, museum/parks and amusement/recreation jobs were also reported, while the largest losses came from the travel arrangement, gear rental and retail industries.

The report adds that $1.1 billion in tax was generated from "indirect and induced economic effects," on top of the $1.6 billion in direct tax collections.

"Our record economic impact is a testament to the staying power of Utah's tourism industry. Consistency, strong partnerships and statewide collaboration are key to navigating challenges and ensuring the visitor economy continues to serve every Utahn," said Natalie Randall, managing director of the Utah Office of Tourism and Film.

2026's tourism story is still being written, but "modest increases" in domestic and international travel across the U.S. are forecasted, the report also notes, although it's unclear how much Utah will see that. Some of it is tied to the FIFA World Cup, which played out across various North American cities.

People are also expected to take shorter and cheaper trips, while also seeking to hit popular areas in off-peak times.

"Ongoing economic uncertainty, including inflationary pressures, interest rate changes and potential policy shifts, may also influence both leisure and business travel in 2026," the report notes.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.