Recent passersby on Heber City’s Main Street may have noticed Midway muralist Pamela Flynn perched on a scaffold, painting the side of the Casago building. She’s only there between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. The July heat has been a bit much to handle during the day.

“It’s, like, 105 on that concrete,” Flynn said. “The whole building is black except for the part that I am working on. The other day, I was putting on the primer, and sweat was just pouring off me.”

The odd painting schedule works perfectly fine for Flynn. She’s a night owl who’s typically up that late creating anyway. She paints animals, landscapes and occasionally her husband dressed as a mountain man, coonskin cap and all. 

Flynn’s latest project is Heber City’s newest public art installation. Funded by a $2,850 grant from the city’s Trails, Arts & Parks Tax, the mural’s goal is to “enhance downtown’s visual appeal, strengthen community identity and reinforce Main Street as a creative destination that supports local businesses and community pride,” said Rachel Kahler, executive director of the Community Alliance for Main Street, the nonprofit managing the project.

The mural, 13 feet tall and 31 feet wide, reads “Hello Heber” over a mountain landscape in orange, black and blue tones. Casago owner Jeff Harris hopes the mural serves a similar purpose to the iconic Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.

“It’s the first mural you might see when you come into town, almost like that Las Vegas one,” he said. “The whole idea was to get people to stop and take pictures, and then develop more visibility for Heber as a tourist destination.”

Harris manages about 60 vacation rentals in the Heber Valley, which will expand to over 300 when Avari Vacation Rentals acquires the company next month. Casago has operated out of the building on Main Street for the past eight months. 

Harris has visited the Heber Valley since he was a kid. He said it’s always been a tourist destination, but with recent developments like Deer Valley East Village, visitation is booming more than ever.

“In five years, everybody’s going to have heard of Heber. I think the train’s left the station. There’s no turning that back,” he said.

In Harris’ eyes, the “Hello Heber” mural is a way to greet visitors and new residents with open arms.

“When I first moved here in 2020 … I still had a California (license plate). A guy literally accosted me in the (gas station) parking lot. He screamed and yelled at me about moving up here from California, and I wasn’t welcome here, and all this other stuff,” he said. “We want people to feel welcome here.”

Flynn was the ideal candidate to paint Harris’ vision. Her experience stretches back to childhood.

How does a child get permission to paint murals, you might ask?

“Your mom is awesome, that’s how,” Flynn said. “You’re 9, and you go, ‘Mom, can I paint on the walls of my bedroom?’ And your mom goes, ‘All right. It’s just paint.’”

So Flynn painted mermaid habitats, jungles dotted with the glow-in-the-dark eyes of predators and the covers of all her favorite Boston and Van Halen albums on her bedroom walls.

Her current bedroom is painted like a castle with bats fluttering around on the starry ceiling.

Flynn refined her skills while apprenticing under Latter-day Saint artist Linda Curley Christensen for the past decade. Christensen leads a mural-painting team for the church out of a studio in Wallsburg.

“All of these canvases are put up in a barn that’s been converted to a massive studio, and they are on these movable easels. Everything gets gridded. Everything gets put up. It all has to be OK’d first before you can even put it on there,” Flynn said. “Each one of those murals is a two-year project. They’re huge.”

Murals Flynn has worked on have been installed at temples in South Jordan, St. George, Mesa, Arizona and Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

But her favorite murals are the ones she’s painted at home, in the Midway Town Hall, Heber City Public Safety Building and Rocky Mountain Middle School.

“I lost two daughter-in-laws in the past five years. … It really put things in perspective, and it really made me say, ‘What do I want to leave behind when I’m gone?’” Flynn said. “(My husband) is always saying, ‘Honey, you left your mark on this valley.’”

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As he stayed in Auronzo di Cadore, Italy, during the Milano Cortina Winter Games, Dallin Koecher, the executive director of Heber Valley Tourism, Economic Development and Chamber of Commerce, was given a glimpse of how the Heber Valley had let the opportunities of the Olympics pass it by during the 2002 Olympics. 

Despite being less than an hour’s drive from the Games territory of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Koecher said that “you would have no idea the Olympics were happening” while visiting the municipality of about 3,300 people.

“There was no major effort to be like, ‘Hey, it’s the Olympics. Let’s stay open later. Let’s do this. Let’s kind of maximize on this.’ It was just business as usual, or no business as usual, as it turned out to be,” Koecher said about Auronzo di Cadore.

During the 2002 Olympics, Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Midway hosted the biathlon and cross-country skiing competitions. But, as Koecher put it, “the community just let people come and go,” without reaping the reward of an influx of tourists to Wasatch County. 

With Soldier Hollow hosting those same competitions during the 2034 Games, Koecher and other Wasatch County representatives are eager not to make the same mistake.

“From a community standpoint, we want to make sure that when visitors come to the Heber Valley, they know that this is an Olympic destination, not just a sleepy little town,” he said.

That’s why Koecher participated in the International Olympic Committee’s Observer Program with other statewide representatives invited to study how communities and venues in and around Cortina d’Ampezzo adapted to the Olympics.

Koecher left for Italy on Feb. 7 and returned Tuesday. He was the only Wasatch County representative to participate in the observer program. Koecher visited Cortina d’Ampezzo instead of Milan, so he could observe the biathlon competition, and watched the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena on Feb. 14.

“I think in Europe, they look at cross-country skiing and Nordic events like we look at college football,” Koecher said with a laugh. “Just massive.”

Able to accommodate up to 19,000 spectators, the arena had the highest spectator capacity of any venue in the Milano Cortina Winter Games. Soldier Hollow accommodated about 20,000 people per day over 16 days of the 2002 Games, according to Luke Bodensteiner, the venue’s general manager.

Bodensteiner expects about 15,000 people per day in 2034, a prospect that excited Koecher. This could be a chance for visitors to shop for trinkets, dine, explore the area and enjoy Heber City’s Main Street Park. The city is currently redesigning the park to support increased event programming, with the intention of completing the makeover by the 2034 Games.

Although Koecher said the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena had all the grandeur of a football stadium, he thought that Soldier Hollow had the venue beat in offering a good view of the competition for spectators. 

“In Italy, we’re in the stands, and you can basically see the shooting range and the penalty track and the start and finish line, which are all great and really exciting. But as soon as they leave the stadium, you don’t see them until they come back,” he said, “Whereas at Soldier Hollow, you have the opportunity to watch without having to be out there. … You can watch these skiers through the trails and stuff from the spectator stands.”

However, both venues face a similar challenge of only having “one road in, one road out,” Koecher said.

He explained that the Olympic organizers dealt with that problem in Italy by temporarily operating shuttles during the Games. He said that could be a viable solution in the Heber Valley, but the experience of being stuck on buses for much of his trip led him to dream up an additional idea: a Heber Valley Railroad train route traveling between Heber City, Midway and Deer Valley East Village.

“(It) would be a solution for the Games, but also create a long-term legacy piece that would benefit our community, Soldier Hollow, the railroad, ongoing, not just for the four weeks of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Koecher said. 

He said using the railroad and shuttles would allow people to park in areas like Southfield Park or Deer Creek High School, alleviating traffic and parking congestion in hotspots like Soldier Hollow.

While the biathlon competition was a highlight, the bulk of Koecher’s trip was spent traveling to other Games venues and talking with International Olympic Committee members, volunteers and paid staff about the challenges and opportunities posed by the Olympics.

What stuck out to Koecher most was the lack of lodging dedicated to non-local volunteers.

“Some of the volunteers said that it was just up to them. ‘OK, go find your housing and figure it out yourself.’ So, they turned to Facebook groups. They turned to social media to find housing,” he said. 

He said Utah has the opportunity to do a “better job” of filling that need, perhaps by organizing an online, statewide system that would match people willing to open their homes to volunteers during the Games.

Even if the practice isn’t adopted in such an official capacity, Koecher is hopeful that it can be picked up in the Heber Valley.

“It’s really kind of like hosting a foreign exchange student for only a couple of weeks,” he said. “That’s a really neat way to, one, experience a new culture by having somebody in your home, but also share our culture.”

As for opportunities, he said broadcasting was a big one.

“The biathlon and cross-country events are hugely popular in Europe. So when they are on TV, they’re going to want their new valley-wide shots, maybe even talk a little about the community as the broadcasters are talking about the events,” he said. “There’s an opportunity for us to use this as a marketing tool, or at least a way to showcase our community to the world.”

Koecher was unable to meet Cortina d’Ampezzo Mayor Gianluca Lorenzi with the rest of his group because the meeting took place on Koecher’s date of departure. 

He said that by the time the meeting was set up, he had already planned to fly home early to minimize the cost of the trip, which was about $4,000 and paid for by Heber Valley Tourism’s budget. The bulk of that budget is funded by Wasatch County Transient Room Tax revenue.

Although Koecher was unable to meet Lorenzi, he asked members of the group to share notes about what they’d learned from their conversation with him.

Koecher said being “boots on the ground” during the observer program was an insightful experience he encouraged other Wasatch County representatives to participate in during the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games and the French Alps 2030 Winter Games. 

Heber City Mayor Heidi Franco has indicated that she is interested in participating in the program during either of those Games. She was supposed to attend this year in Koecher’s place but had to decline when her grandson was born. 

Bodensteiner will be participating in the observer program during the Paralympic Games in Val di Fiemme, Italy, from March 6 to 11. 

Koecher will present findings from his trip to the Heber Valley Community Impact and Legacy Committee — a group made up of representatives from Soldier Hollow, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, Heber City, Midway and Wasatch County — sometime next month.

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Dallin Koecher, executive director of Heber Valley Tourism, Economic Development and Chamber of Commerce, will be attending the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games to gather information that could help Wasatch County prepare for the Utah 2034 Olympics. 

Koecher is participating in the International Olympic Committee’s observer program, which gives future hosts of the Games a chance to plan by watching event organizers behind the scenes. 

When Koecher returns, he will present his findings to fellow members of the Heber Valley Community Impact and Legacy Committee, which is made up of representatives from Soldier Hollow Nordic Center, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation and Heber City, Midway and Wasatch County.

Heber City Mayor Heidi Franco was supposed to attend, but personal responsibility took priority when her grandson was born. She is planning on attending the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Summer Games or the French Alps 2030 Olympic Winter Games.

The Utah 2034 organizing committee invited several Wasatch County officials to join the program last autumn, with the expectation that they would pay their own way.

Koecher’s trip is funded through Heber Valley Tourism’s budget, which is primarily supported by revenue from Wasatch County’s 4.5% transient room tax. He estimated that his trip, including flights, food and lodgings, will cost around $4,000.

He “hemmed and hawed for a little bit” about whether the expense was worth the reward but ultimately decided it was. The Heber Valley Tourism board agreed.

Koecher will be departing for Italy on Wednesday and returning on Feb. 17. 

The group Koecher is in is the only one of four traveling to Cortina d’Ampezzo instead of Milan, chosen as his home base because of its proximity to the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena. 

Soldier Hollow in Midway hosted the biathlon and cross-country skiing competitions during the 2002 games and will host them again in 2034. 

Koecher will bring observations of how the biathlon event and stadium are handled back to leadership from Soldier Hollow. The venue’s general manager, Luke Bodensteiner, will similarly be participating in the Observer Program March 6-11 at the Paralympic Games in Val di Fiemme to study factors like venue security and accessibility.

Koecher will also be shadowing people working at the games.

“One thing I’m going to be doing is a day in the life of the workforce member. How does it work? How do the volunteers work? How does the paid staff work?” he said.

The focus of Koecher’s group is mountain operations and logistics, security and how various venues organize their events for athletes, the public and the media.

Koecher said he may also be allowed to speak with his Cortina d’Ampezzo counterparts, be it the mayor or representatives of the town’s tourism and economic development board.

Wasatch County stakeholders’ hope for the 2034 Games is that the Heber Valley sees economic spillover from observers visiting Soldier Hollow instead of being passed by like during the 2002 Olympics.

As Bodensteiner put it, “Everybody got bussed in from some other town, watched the competition and never really came to town, just drove right through it.”

This next time around, Koecher envisions watch parties, cultural exchange and bustling businesses and restaurants through the entirety of the Olympics and Paralympics.

Koecher’s trip will be his first in-person Olympics since the 2002 Games. He was 17 at the time and lived in Bountiful.

The opening ceremony is forever etched in his mind, from hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” to seeing an American flag recovered from ground zero of the Sept. 11 attacks.

But a much simpler sentiment stuck with Koecher, too.

“It was pretty cool to see how Utah opened its arms to the world,” Koecher said. 

He hopes the Heber Valley can do the same in 2034.

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There’s a new superhero in town and his name is HospitaBill Malone.

Park City Economic Development Director Chris Eggleton said being hospitable, at its core, is a verb. It’s embodied in a person’s actions — like a superhero — how a person might do more than just open the door, but make sure someone feels like they belong once they’re inside.

That spirit of hospitality, Eggleton said, is exactly what defines Bill Malone.

Malone personified generosity and cordiality long before he helped create the Myles Rademan Spirit of Hospitality Award in 2003 as the then-president and CEO of the Park City Chamber/Bureau. But it all came full circle when the organization he once led for 21 years bestowed the honor upon him during its annual meeting on Thursday at Pendry Park City.

The award is given to residents who epitomize the vision of Park City and aspire to make the community a better, more inclusive place. It’s named after Rademan, who served as a city planning director in the late ’80s and founded the Leadership Park City program. Recent recipients include Sally Elliott, Tina Lewis and Teri Whitney.

Rademan reflected on the challenges the county and state are facing, and emphasized the need for Park City to embrace acceptance, serenity and courage in the “hectic and disorienting years ahead” with civility and kindness as the 2034 Winter Games loom ahead.

“We simply cannot allow anger and frustration to be our new muses. Fretting and complaining about what we’re losing, rather than concentrating on what we might gain, is not either a strategy for success or a recipe for personal happiness,” Rademan said.

The sentiment is also enshrined in the Chamber/Bureau’s new tagline: Mountainkind. It’s something close to Malone’s heart.

“It’s nice to be important, and it’s more important to be nice,” he said.

Malone grew up in Delaware and earned an undergraduate degree in political science at a small college in Maryland. He then attended graduate school at Pace University in New York, obtaining a degree in public administration.

At the time, Malone recalled that he wasn’t really sure what he wanted to do. His first job out of college was as a staffer at the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce, which had a strong emphasis on political science because Malone worked on the legislative affairs side. 

Malone, known for his robust mustache at the time, eventually moved up the East Coast with his wife, Linda. He became the executive director of the chamber of commerce in Peekskill, New York, one of the youngest in the state. A New York Times reporter briefly interviewed Malone at the chamber in 1979 for an article about the forgotten history of President-elect Abraham Lincoln’s visit to town to give a brief address.

Malone eventually accepted a position leading the Ocean County Chamber of Commerce in the 1980s. He and Linda moved their family to Toms River, New Jersey, to raise two children, Megan and Kevin.

The job was Malone’s first taste of seasonal hospitality with the community located on the Jersey Shore. It showed him how business trends can change and exposed Malone to the measurability of economics. He said it was easy to see what worked and what didn’t.

But while Malone was indoctrinated in the summer business, his family often traveled out west for winter vacations. They always talked about moving away from the East Coast, but it wasn’t until an opportunity arose for Malone to run the chamber resort association in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, in 1989 that they jumped at the chance and never looked back.

In Steamboat Springs, Malone was to build a summer economy in a place known for its skiing, and he created a series of rodeos, marathons and balloon festival events that drew crowds from Denver’s Front Range. 

Malone was also involved in major event planning and bidding, such as competing to host the National Brotherhood of Skiers convention in the mid-1990s. The experience exposed him to managing large-scale seasonal events and helped him understand the dynamics of resort communities, which was a pivotal step in his hospitality career. It was also there that Malone met Joan Calder, who later became his predecessor in Park City.

Malone spent seven years in Colorado before he became the executive director of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce. There, he was also tasked with helping the community build a 12-month economy.

Malone held the position for three years until Calder announced she was stepping down, and Malone once again jumped. He took over the Park City Chamber/Bureau in July 1999. 

“Park City was a dream job,” Malone said. “We always knew that this was a great town and a great place to be.”

The 2002 Winter Olympics had already been announced, and while there was plenty of work done, there was still plenty to do. Malone found ways to leave his own fingerprint on the event, such as helping businesses prepare for the Games by educating them on everything from pin trading to planning the logistics of flower deliveries on Valentine’s Day.

“I had been involved with Ski World Cups in other areas, so I had some knowledge and familiarity with what was going to happen inside the fence, but the key ingredient for us is what happens outside the fence as a community,” Malone said.

That included finishing up the details on the Olympic Welcome Plaza on the corner of Kearns Boulevard and Park Avenue, organizing celebratory media relations for the Games and more. The Chamber/Bureau was also thinking about how to use the Winter Olympics as a catalyst to springboard new types of business and using the Games as a device to court other events.

Malone remembered there was a little bit of shock from an economic standpoint after the Games. He remembered driving home with his wife after the closing ceremonies after having driven by the stadium at the bottom of the ski jumps — lit up and decorated with banners — for two weeks earlier. Then the power was off, and the Games were over.

But Park City had been thrust into the international spotlight and gained credibility with a well-run Olympics.

Malone said after a few days of thought gathering, there was a strong sense of confidence. That poured over to other established events like World Cups and the Sundance Film Festival, while also opening the door for new business opportunities in New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, as well as the international market in Brazil, Great Britain and Australia.

“If you can do the Olympics in your town, you can do almost anything,” Malone said. “You went into the conversations in a much more enviable position.”

The 2002 Games helped build a sense of familiarity with the Park City area that started to move the needle forward in other areas, Malone said. He was recognized as helping to set the standard of excellence and played a key role in promoting the arts and cultural business of the community. 

For example, the opening of the Montage Deer Valley, the St. Regis Deer Valley and the Waldorf Astoria also brought an entirely new customer base to the Park City area. Park City didn’t have much of a connection to the luxury lifestyle before, but now it’s synonymous with the community’s brand. 

Eggleton and others who acknowledged Malone’s spirit of hospitality said he helped ensure the world felt welcomed in Park City. Malone also turned “momentum,” the theme of the event, into a community ethos. 

Beyond the 2002 Winter Games, the Chamber/Bureau credited Malone with the following initiatives: securing a Recreation, Arts and Parks tax to fund cultural programs, supporting a 2016 transit tax for better mobility, launching the International Ski Pass and creating the Quick Start program where a boarding pass could become a same-day lift ticket — giving away over 24,000 tickets at its peak. 

Malone said having longevity and strong professional and personal relationships also influenced his success at the Chamber/Bureau. He decided to retire after two decades in January 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed his plans for a few months. Malone recalled that the Chamber/Bureau was in a state of paralysis during the first half of the year, but officials could “see the light” by the end of summer, and business bounced back.

The Chamber/Bureau ultimately hired Jennifer Wesselhoff as Malone’s successor, and she started in October of that year. Wesselhoff said Park City has “been forever enriched by Bill’s dedication and leadership,” noting he’s helped better numerous organizations with a steady hand and a clear vision.

Over the years, Malone said the definition of hospitality, and the industry overall, has broadened. Back then, it was a transactional kind of business heavily reliant on tax revenues. But now it’s evolved beyond hotels and restaurants. 

“There’s more to this than just how many butts in beds you can get,” Malone said. “It’s a community, and we have a mindset here that we want to make sure that we don’t do things that would harm the integrity of the brand over time.”

For Malone, that means balancing hospitality and tourism with local residents’ needs. It’s important to consider what success means, who benefits from that success, and how that success will move the community.

He said the staff of the Chamber/Bureau is invested in Park City, and wants to do what’s best for it. Malone acknowledged the importance of building relationships throughout the community and making sure everyone is on the same page. 

After all, for Malone, it’s always been more than work.

“For decades, Bill and hospitality have been inseparable, not just as the chamber and tourism CEO, but as a host, a neighbor and a friend and a leader,” Eggleton said while introducing his longtime mentor for the award presentation.

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Summit County leads the state in short-term rentals, according to a recent Kem C. Gardner Institute report.

Short-term rentals, often found on sites like Airbnb and VRBO, have grown rapidly in popularity statewide since 2021. Per the institute’s study, “the average number of monthly STR [short-term rental] listings increased by 39.4% from 16,803 in 2021 to 23,428 in 2023.”

Of those more than 23,000 short-term rentals, 60% are located within three counties: Summit, Salt Lake and Washington. In Summit County, approximately 23.8% of total housing is listed as a short-term rental.

“The impact with regards to housing affordability, I don’t think that can be dismissed,” said Economic Development and Housing Director Jeff Jones. “There was a statement [in the report] that said even if there weren’t STRs, the units wouldn’t be made available. They would just be vacant. There was also something else about how they would be beyond the reach of people who could afford them anyway based upon the wage scale in the area.”

Jones said that he believes short-term rentals are driving up housing prices in Summit County, a trend that he’s seen studied and reported nationwide. The difficulty for the county is figuring out if short-term rentals need to be more regulated and, if so, how to make that regulation feasible.

“If someone is renting out their home, we don’t have any regulations from a land-use perspective,” said Community Development Director Peter Barnes. “You need to go get your business license. You need to abide by the rules and regulations regarding business licensing, but as far as we are concerned [in the Planning Department], it’s a residential unit, and it’s still residential use.”

Sociologically, Barnes said that a high percentage of short-term rentals potentially affects the Summit County community as well.

“If you have a residential neighborhood and a house that’s a second home for someone sits vacant every four days until the weekend when it’s occupied by a new stranger, then you start to hollow out the community in terms of social engagement, neighbor involvement, stuff like that,” he explained.

Historically, first-time home owners would buy fixer-uppers at a lower price point, but those fixer-uppers are now being purchased and flipped by people hoping to invest in the short-term rental market, Jones said.

The report also showed that short-term rentals are affecting existing housing. For every 10 residential units added between 2022 and 2023, there was an increase of 14.2 new short-term rental listings.

“There is a direct correlation between the number of short-term rental licenses being issued and housing prices and affordability,” Barnes agreed. “When housing becomes an investment, prices rise, and we’re already in a very tricky market. We’re making housing affordability harder for those people who need long-term rental units. It’s an increasingly popular form of property investment, which has implications for all of us as a society. I don’t think we really know how to deal with it yet.”

Some cities, such as Palm Springs, California, have seen success by capping the total number of allowed short-term rentals, according to Jones. Right now, however, Summit County doesn’t have any specific plans to follow suit.

“I think it’s definitely something that people think about,” Jones said. “I think the county is still in its infancy trying to figure out, first, how many do we have? Where are they located? Do we have everybody under a business license? Kind of the rudimentary things first, and then the second phase will be figuring out all of the policy implications, and there’s a lot more research.”

If the county decides to implement short-term rental regulations, the Planning Department would get more involved, especially if those regulations include restrictions on the number of licenses, Barnes said.

“It’s a complicated subject,” Jones said. “Do they generate money for us? Yeah, they do. Do they impact housing prices? Absolutely they do. It’s one of those things where this is an issue nationally and, I think, for the entire state of Utah as well.”

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Summit County’s tourism economy experienced another snowstorm of success this year, with the region rolling in as the state’s second-largest economic driver behind Salt Lake County.

Tourism in Utah generated an estimated $12.71 billion in direct visitor spending during the fiscal year, supporting almost 160,000 jobs statewide and creating $2.35 billion in state and local tax revenue, according to the Utah Office of Tourism Managing Director Natalie Randall. 

Almost $1.65 billion, or 13%, of that came from visitor spending in Summit County. Salt Lake dominates the list of counties with an annual visitor economy of $4 billion, or 40% of Utah’s total. Still, more than $18 million collected intransient room taxes last year in the greater Park City area made up 17% of the total statewide revenue. 

The figures are still preliminary, but if confirmed, they would make for another record-breaking year for Utah’s economy.

“We’re the only state agency that’s wholly dedicated to marketing the state, but it is important as we take into account the balance and as we see the growth, especially in communities like Park City and a mature visitor economy, the development pieces and the stewardship pieces as well. Economic impact in our state is significant. Tourism provides a significant piece to that,” Randall said. 

Another historic winter in the Park City area, combined with strong retail and lodging numbers as well as the Park City Chamber/Bureau’s rebranding effort, allowed the area to emerge as a significant contributor to the state.

Around 15% of total spending in Summit County comes from visitors, leading to a tax revenue of $291.5 million for the county and support for 15,000 local jobs. 

The metrics were lauded as the Chamber/Bureau’s latest achievements during its annual meeting on Wednesday at Pendry Park City. 

Over the last six months, lodging numbers have started to level out. Occupancy rates are up 3% and rates are up 1%. President and CEO Jennifer Wesselhoff said Summit County is exactly on pace for this time last year.

“Where the rubber really hits the road though is in our tax collection, and where visitor spending continues to drive and increase in all of the tourism-related categories for Summit County tax collections from January through August, those categories are up … between 3-5%,” Wesselhoff said. “We have a lot of success to build upon in the upcoming year, and we have such an incredibly strong foundation.”

Almost 90% of funding for the Chamber/Bureau came from the transient room tax, which is paid by visitors for short-term lodging in Summit County. Wesselhoff estimated international travelers account for 12% of overnight visitation, a demographic that’s been returning to the community in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 8,500 people visited the Visitor Center help desk in 2023.

Wesselhoff also highlighted how the new tourism brand, legislative efforts focused on housing, transportation, diversity and sustainability as well as the return of the Winter Games in 2034 could impact future visitation.

The Mountainkind ethos was unveiled as a way to present Park City as an “unparalleled mountain community where respect for each other and our natural world defines us.” The Chamber/Bureau hopes the message inspires tourists to support small businesses and take care of the environment while officials plan for the next 10 years. 

Local tourism officials plan to focus on attracting quality visitors to the Park City area while they plan for future developments associated with the future Olympics and prepare to take on the international spotlight. 

“Economic impact numbers are a priority, but we prioritize at the top of our mission, elevating life in Utah and considering quality of life is a key piece to that balance,” Randall said.

About 78% of Utahns say tourism has a positive effect on the state’s reputation, according to a resident sentiment survey. 

That number is higher among Park City residents, 91% of whom said tourism is important to the local economy. However, Randall acknowledged there was still work to be done with only 40% of Parkites saying the positive effects outweigh the negative. 

A large majority of Chamber/Bureau members have said maintaining community character and a sense of place is important to them.

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