Utah’s next Olympics may still be years away, but Salt Lake tourism is already benefiting.
Hosting the 2034 Winter Games is a big part of what differentiates Utah’s capital city and surrounding communities from their competitors for tourists and conventioneers, said Kaitlin Eskelson, Visit Salt Lake’s CEO and president.
“I think we’re at the precipice of major growth in terms of just bringing the spotlight and the world stage to Salt Lake,” Eskelson told the Deseret News during Wednesday’s fourth annual Sports Tourism Summit, held at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“It’s all about the lead-up and kind of that global notoriety or the recognition that will really position Salt Lake,” she said. “We’re really leveraging that from the standpoint of our international leisure travelers. Even our convention delegates are very interested in the story.”
Olympic athletes who live and train in Utah, including bobsledder Kaysha Love and speedskater Ethan Cepuran, are often part of the pitch the agency uses to promote Salt Lake County as a destination, Eskelson said.
Sometimes, those charged with evaluating Salt Lake as a convention location get a tour of one of the venues from the 2002 Winter Games that are set to be reused in 2034. At the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns, for example, they’d even get a chance to try the sport of curling.
Utah’s Olympic legacy also attract sports tourists, including young athletes and their families who plan vacations around amateur competitions. Sports-related visits are said to account for about a third of tourism revenues, with close to 500,000 people spending around $194 million.
“In our world, yes, sports is a huge differentiator,” Eskelson said, citing a “sentiment study” of how Salt Lake is perceived that showed about two-thirds of the people questioned don’t have either a positive or a negative impression.
“They just don’t know, which is really interesting. It gives us this opportunity to define who we are” between now and the 2034 Games, she said, with the Olympics the “little spark” that sets Salt Lake apart from other tourist and convention cities.
Once the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles are over, allowing Utah’s Olympic organizers to begin marketing the 2034 Winter Games, Eskelson anticipates the start of a “huge acceleration” in tourism.
“This city is going to look very different right before and then immediately thereafter the Olympics,” she said, thanks to a big buildup, including downtown Salt Lake City’s new sports, entertainment, culture and convention zone east of the Delta Center.
“We can leverage that infrastructure,” Eskelson said. “It’s kind of that rising tide.”
Other Utah communities, of course, are also counting on a boost from another Olympics.
At a panel discussion on building venues to drive tourism spending during Wednesday’s summit, West Valley City’s economic development director, Jonathan Springmeyer, said his city is looking forward to once again hosting Olympic competition at the Maverik Center.
This time around, the city-owned arena will be the site of figure skating and short-track speedskating rather than hockey. The switch from 2002 comes now that the Delta Center is home to the Utah Mammoth, the state’s first National Hockey League team.
“When our city leaders wanted to get in on the Olympic Games experience in the mid-’90s and made the decision to build the Maverik Center, it was a pretty bold move,” Springmeyer said, adding there have been some challenges.
“But the opportunities have been great,” he said, including as the longtime home of the Utah Grizzlies, a minor league hockey team that’s relocating to New Jersey and a site for high-level gymnastics competitions.
Sandy Mayor Monica Zoltanski said her city, where the Utah Mammoth recently opened a massive new practice facility at The Shops at South Town mall, is already planning for the Olympics.
“We’re thinking ahead for experiences and place-making,” she said.
