Utah's abortion law, tagged as one of the more strict in the United States, wouldn't affect 76 percent of outsiders in their decision to visit the Beehive State as tourists or on business, according to a survey on the state's image.
Only 10 percent of the respondents said Utah's abortion law has a negative impact on their decision to visit Utah. Seven percent said it would have a positive impact, and 8 percent didn't know how they felt.In its telephone survey of 1,516 people in all states except Alaska, Hawaii and Utah, Dan Jones & Associates asked if the people had heard of Utah's abortion law. Only 11 percent said the law was much more strict than in other states, 14 percent said it was somewhat more strict and 10 percent said it was about the same. A majority, 64 percent, didn't know about Utah's law.
Results of the survey were released Monday by a consortium of companies and government agencies wanting to determine how people perceive Utah, with the information intended as a guide to help tourism and economic development efforts.
The survey was financed by a consortium of the Utah Department of Community and Economic Development, the Utah Division of Business and Economic Development, Utah Travel Council, Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau, Utah Power, Ski Utah and the Economic Development Corporation of Utah.
Among those who have never visited Utah, 55 percent said that, if given the opportunity for a visit, they would look forward to it, 31 percent were indifferent about the visit and 8 percent had misgivings.
On the subject of living in Utah, 34 percent of those responding were indifferent and 13 percent would welcome the chance to live in the state. When asked if they had family ties to Utah, 5 percent said yes and 94 percent said no.
When asked what impression they had when thinking about the Western part of the United States, 52 percent had positives thoughts, 38 percent had neutral thoughts and 6 percent were negative.
When it comes to Utah being known in other sections of the country, the survey showed that only 20 percent of the respondents read about Utah in national magazines, 18 percent heard about Utah from television, 14 percent from newspaper articles and 7 percent through tourism advertisements.
Some 23 percent of the respondents said the stories had a very positive impact on their image of Utah, 31 percent said they were somewhat positive, 29 percent were neutral and 8 percent said they got a somewhat negative image.
Asked if they visited Utah for business reasons, 22 percent said they were in Utah for a convention or conference, 12 percent attended sales or company representative meetings, 15 percent attended a business meeting and 25 percent were lumped into the miscellaneous category.
If the respondents had visited Utah, 56 percent said it was a very pleasant experience, 35 percent said is was somewhat pleasant and only 2 percent said it was somewhat unpleasant. After the visit, 2 percent said their impression of Utah was much worse, 3 percent said it was somewhat worse, 51 percent said it was the same, 19 percent said it was somewhat better and 15 percent said it was much better.