SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake area saw both significant growth and decline in its convention and tourism industries last year, according to a recent report.
The Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau's 2009 annual report showed that direct visitor spending jumped 20 percent in Salt Lake County last year, despite a 17.8 percent drop in the number of convention delegates and visitors.
The report showed that during 2009, visitors spent more than $1.146 billion, compared with $952 million in 2008. While the number of convention delegates totaled 273,974 in 2008, that number fell to 225,335 last year.
"What we saw was that people came but stayed fewer nights," Scott Beck, the bureau's president and chief executive officer, told the Deseret News. "That is where we clearly saw the impact of the recession, and fewer people are traveling and fewer events in the future got booked."
While the bureau reported in excess of $253 million in meetings and conventions booked for future years in 2008, the amount booked in 2009 for future years fell to just under $160 million. Total sales and use taxes declined from $21.5 million in 2008 to $20.3 million in 2009.
Beck said the economic slump has forced potential convention-goers and meeting planners to re-evaluate their travel policies in order to get the most value for their money. Also, fewer meeting planners are able to make definitive commitments for future conventions and business industry meetings in Salt Lake.
Meanwhile, visitors who are coming to Salt Lake City may be staying less time and renting fewer hotel rooms, but those travelers typically spend more money on food and entertainment, boosting the local economy. Overall spending at restaurants in 2009 rose to $560 million, compared with approximately $238 million the year before, the report stated.
"We saw that in 2009, corporate travel (or) corporate meetings were at an all-time record, never-before-seen low, both from attendance and from future bookings," Beck said. "But what we also saw was that we did begin to see there was traction in (other markets)."
He said recreation activities like skiing have been hurt less than the corporate meetings market.
Judging from the trends the bureau has tracked, Beck said, there have been indications that the local economy has started to stabilize.
"We can certainly see the bottom (of the recession)," he said. "(The economy is) starting to level off."
e-mail: jlee@desnews.com