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This is Marty Carpenter of the Salt Lake Chamber with your Utah Business Report.
The Utah Office of Tourism says the state's tourism industry grew this past year, reaching 7-point-4 billion dollars in traveler spending. That is nearly an eight percent increase from 2011. Visitors also contributed 960-million dollars in state and local taxes.
According to the Utah Department of Workforce Services, tourism is a big job creator in the rural parts of Utah, especially in Garfield, Grand and Kane counties. Of course, the Greatest Snow on Earth makes Summit County a big tourism draw, as well. Statewide, the tourism industry supported more than 127-thousand jobs last year.
In 2012, 23-and-a-half million visitors from all over the world came to Utah to enjoy our majestic mountains and national parks Utah offers. That's an all-time high for the Beehive state!
Utah's five national parks drew more than 6-point-five million visits in 2012, while our 14 ski resorts had more than 4 million skier days.
This is Marty Carpenter for KSL News Radio.