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Keith McCord Reporting The Utah Office of Tourism is in the process of launching a new 10-million dollar advertising campaign to promote our state to potential visitors, and the timing couldn't better, because a recent survey shows that people in other states don't know us that well.
You'd think after the Olympics, Utah and its attractions would be well known, but there is some confusion out there. The office of tourism recently did a survey to get some baseline data of what out-of-staters' knowledge is about Utah's tourist sites.
They got answers like: Delicate Arch is located in Arizona, the Golden Spike National Historic site is in New Mexico, and the downtown skyline, which features the Capitol Building and the spires of the LDS Temple is where? Well, Colorado, of course.
The Utah Image Survey was conducted online last month, and 2,600 people participated. In a nutshell, people like us, especially those who have visited before, but there is some confusion.
Leigh von der Esch, Director, Utah Office of Tourism: "So we've got nowhere to go but up, looking at the glass half full. And I think anything I point out is that it was absolutely necessary for the legislature and the governor to get behind a bigger marketing and promotional budget for this state."
Those who took part in the survey, were shown a variety of photos and asked to name the state in which they were located.
Leigh von der Esch: "Zion National Park, most picked it out as being in Utah, but they picked it out for a number of other states as well."
Some people thought the Snowbird Tram was in Colorado. Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah -- we're all neighbors for sure, but the challenge for the tourism folks now is to get people to hone in our state.
Leigh von der Esch: "We know that our national parks and scenic beauty is appreciated; now we need to reinforce where it is. National parks are always going to be so important to us, and our ski industry, extremely important to us."
The big promotional campaign is already underway, and 18-months or two years from now, another survey will be conducted to see if it's working.
