Name: Utah tourism was flat in 2025 even while one group stayed away
Uploaded: 2026-01-01T03:13:31.011Z
Duration: 2 min 14 s
Description: Utah tourism was flat in 2025 even while one group stayed away

Utah tourism was flat in 2025 even while one group stayed away

Utah

Utah's tourism industry, valued at $13 billion annually, experienced relatively flat growth in 2025. Hotel occupancy rates were slightly down by 1% compared to the previous year, and visits to several national parks declined, though others saw modest increases. 

Spending by American tourists in areas like Moab rose, but international visitor spending dropped, particularly due to a significant decrease in Canadian tourists. Analysts attribute the decline to political tensions and a weaker Canadian dollar, while noting potential for growth from South American markets and upcoming global events.

tourism in Utah is a $13 billion a year business. So who did and did not visit Utah in 2025? I'm Fox 13 investigative reporter Nate Carlisle. Tourism in Utah has been steady, but there's some interesting data points. Monthly hotel occupancy in Utah was 64% for January through November. That's down about 1% from the prior year. Also through November visits to three of Utah's national parks, Bryce Canyon, Capital Reef and Kenya lands declined by about 2% each, but visitation increased by about the same rate at Arches and Zion National Parks. Then look at this data from Moab. While visa credit card spending by Americans increased by a couple million dollars spending by international visitors declined by more than a million dollars. We spoke with Jennifer Lever, senior tourism analyst at the KMC Gardner Policy Institute in Salt Lake City. She said nationwide there's been a big drop in the largest market. That's visitors from Canada. Tourism in 2025 so far has been relatively flat, um, in certain areas. Utah Tourism Economics said, um, they were forecasting a 19% decline in Canadian visitors, 1.4 for all overseas visitors, and they were forecasting a 5% decline in visitors from Mexico. But I would say that the political tensions are probably playing into this, as well as the Canadian dollar is not as strong against the US dollar. Are there still untapped markets for Utah abroad? I think there definitely are. And I believe in the last few years I was seeing some trends from South America that were growing. Lever said so called mega events like the FIFA World Cup, America to 50 and the Route 66 Centennial could bring more foreign tourists to the United States and then maybe to Utah in the studio. Nate Carlisle, Fox 13 News, Utah.

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