The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah has released an analysis of Utah’s travel and tourism industry, including a sizable drop in skier days last ski season
The report focuses on spending and financial growth as primary indicators of the status of the industry. The most notable changes between 2024 and 2025, unsurprisingly, are related to skiing and winter tourism.
Across Utah’s 15 resorts there was a 26.5% decrease in skier days from the 2024-25 season. Despite the lower number of days on the slopes, the report details an increase in spending for individual ski days. Spending per-skier visit was $392, marking a 12% increase between 2024-25 and 2025-26. This adds up to a $0.4 billion difference between annual spending, even though there were almost 2 million fewer ski days.
A decrease in international visitors continued last season. According to the report, there was a significant drop in Canadian visitors in particular, a demographic that previously made up Utah’s largest international market.
Hotel occupancy rates were lower across the entire state last year. Summit County was among the counties with the largest decline. Average room rates were higher throughout all of Utah, with Summit and Wasatch counties increasing rates the most from year to year. According to the report, both counties added more hotel rooms throughout the year, increasing the capacity by 20%.
Five counties, including Wasatch and Summit counties, totaled over three-quarters of the state’s leisure and hospitality taxable sales. Wasatch County saw the largest increase statewide at 27%. For comparison, the county with the second highest increase was Garfield with 12%. Summit County’s sales in the same category decreased by 2%.
Throughout the state, the tourism and travel industry account for roughly one in 10 jobs. In 2025 the industry directly generated over 100,000 jobs. Nearly 60,000 more jobs were impacted through indirect effects of the travel industry.
The report points out many of these changes could be due to a post-pandemic stabilization in tourism, although the record-breaking low snowpack last year did directly impact the economic changes throughout the year.