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'The outlook is optimistic': Utah's tourism industry still buzzing after record $12B year

By carter williams, ksl.com | posted - aug. 10, 2023 at 6:14 a.m., people watch the sunrise at bryce canyon national park on may 18. utah's tourism industry generated nearly $12 billion in visitor spending last year, according to recent data. (laura seitz, deseret news).

Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's tourism industry generated nearly $12 billion in visitor spending last year, and there are no signs that it's slowing down anytime soon, which is creating potentially new opportunities to experience the state, tourism experts say.

Preliminary 2022 data shows that last year's spending eclipsed the previous record of $11.7 billion set in 2019, though record inflation is partly responsible for that, according to updated data released by the University of Utah Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute Wednesday morning. This supported over 150,000 statewide jobs and generated an estimated $2.12 billion in tax revenue.

The institute is still crunching last year's numbers before a final report is released.

While visitation to Utah's national and state parks dropped closer to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, the state's ski resorts blossomed as a result of an early and long ski season and record snowfall in Utah's mountains. At least 12 of the state's 15 resorts broke visitation records, Ski Utah officials reported in June.

"This great snowfall definitely played into it, the record visitor spending," said Jennifer Leaver, a senior tourism analyst at the Gardner Policy Institute who presented the data Wednesday.

International travel, which was virtually wiped out by the global pandemic, remained behind 2019 levels in 2022. This typically accounts for as much as a tenth of direct visitor spending. However, Leaver said she believes it will be close to or back to 2019 levels as early as this year.

The new data left Utah's tourism leaders feeling confident after the industry was decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic three years ago.

How tourism aids urban and rural Utah

Utah's urban core continues to generate the majority of visitor spending. Davis, Salt Lake, Utah and Weber counties, combined, accounted for nearly 57% of the money generated last year, according to the institute.

This is perhaps most evident by the successes in downtown Salt Lake City, which the University of Toronto's School of Cities has tracked since the COVID-19 pandemic . Researchers there found that downtown activity in the winter and spring each ended up at 139% of pre-pandemic levels, the highest among 63 North American cities it is keeping tabs on. In fact, Utah's capital topped the list in five of the last six seasons.

The Institute notes Salt Lake City International Airport travel and Salt Lake County hotel occupancy rates are now starting to trend above 2019 levels. Airport officials said last week that they're on track for a record year.

"We're in this period of renaissance and it's super exciting," said Kaitlin Eskelson, president and CEO of Visit Salt Lake, adding that it appears Salt Lake is the next sort of mid-major city to be given national limelight.

She believes many visitors were surprised to come back to a "totally different" Salt Lake City after the pandemic because of its new airport, buildings and city programming that emerged during the pandemic. It's also close to many outdoor recreation opportunities.

"I think we're going to review this as historic for Salt Lake and I think, in a lot of ways, we're on the map in a lot of different ways — whether it's the convention side, the sports side (and) the major event side," she added. "I think the next 10 years plus is going to be our time to really start shining."

But Utah's 25 counties outside of the Wasatch Front are also feeling this type of energy, says Natalie Randall, executive director of the Utah Tourism Industry Association.

Randall, who lives in Monticello, has a job that requires her to travel across the state, meeting with state and local tourism leaders and businesses to gauge their needs and concerns. It's noticeable in her San Juan County home, along the Uintah Basin and, of course, by the state's national parks and other outdoor gems.

"I think you feel it around the state," she said. "You're feeling that enthusiasm. ... The tourism industry really allows for entrepreneurs to stay in the area to grow their businesses."

– Vicki Varela, director of the Utah Office of Tourism

That, in turn, helps the rural economy. Although there's more visitor spending along the Wasatch Front, Leaver points out that visitor spending output within the 25 other counties is about three times higher than the Wasatch Front. That means visitor spending has a greater impact on the economy outside the Wasatch Front.

She adds that the tax revenue generated by tourism goes into a whole host of things that benefit the state, such as its general fund. There are also new programs that send a portion of the revenue to the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation for education programs and grants for new outdoor recreation projects.

In 2015, prior to a change in tourism tax collection and the creation of the division, the Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation was only able to provide grants to 15 projects in 11 counties with an average grant of about $27,000. The division sent an average of a little more than $176,000 to 92 projects scattered across 25 counties this year.

The shape of Utah tourism to come

The work to maintain the industry's strength is ongoing, trying to balance out business and the impact it may have on the environment. Vicki Varela, director at the Utah Office of Tourism, said there are initiatives in place to spread out tourists to different parts of the state and to get people to either visit new parts of traditional favorites or to visit them at different times.

For example, Utah's many dark sky parks allow for more unique outdoor experiences during the least busy times of the 24-hour day. Tourism officials say they have also started nudging people to visit parks at different times of day or year instead of the normal rush times or seasons, so people aren't damaging the land or the experience.

"What we want the experience to be for everyone is exquisite — a sense of discovery, a sense of magic," Varela said. "We try to think about ways we can honor this need this access to these beautiful open spaces in thoughtful ways."

Meanwhile, tourism officials celebrated the return of Outdoor Retailer this year, which Eskelson said is as impactful as a symbol of Utah's outdoor strength as it is economically. The region continues to bring in major conferences that drive urban tourism spending.

Salt Lake City also hosted the NBA All-Star Game this year and there's a buzz behind the possibility that it will host the Winter Olympics , as well as bring in a new Major League Baseball or NHL franchise.

The state is also finding new trends in tourism, which is starting to extend outside of the state's primary tourism draws. Pop culture is one of those, ranging from markers where famous movie scenes were shot in Utah to the mystery that is Skinwalker Ranch . Varela admits that she couldn't have ever imagined coming up with an event like the Paranormal Conference happening in Vernal next month.

It highlights exactly how tourism is evolving as much as it growing in the state.

"I think the outlook is optimistic," Leaver says. "I think people that forecast the tourism industry see this kind of strong and steady continual increase over time."

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Idaho Commerce Welcomes New Tourism Manager July 8, 2024

PRESS RELEASE: For immediate release

Contact: Laurie McConnell Visit Idaho 208-287-0781 [email protected]

Idaho Commerce Welcomes New Tourism Manager

BOISE, Idaho (July 8, 2024) –The Idaho Department of Commerce is pleased to welcome Natalie Jushinski as Visit Idaho’s new Tourism manager.

Jushinski is a hospitality veteran with twenty plus years of industry experience in hotel meeting and event management and has an extensive background in travel and tourism, including product development and distribution. Natalie has spent a significant part of her career focusing on inbound international leisure travel, specifically promoting the Pacific Northwest working with city and state Destination Marketing Organizations and other travel entities around the globe.

A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Jushinski moved often in her youth as part of a military family. Her exposure to destinations all over the world fueled a passion for travel. She currently resides in Nampa, ID with her husband and French Bulldog. In her free time, Jushinski enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, gardening, walking her dog, and has a passion for music and singing. She can also be found on her motorcycle exploring the backroads of the beautiful Idaho countryside with her husband and friends.

“I am thrilled to join the amazing team at Visit Idaho and look forward to working with our partners around the state in promoting our beautiful destination to visitors far and wide,” says Jushinski.

Jushinski replaces former Tourism Manager Diane Norton, whose Idaho Commerce career spanned nearly 17 years in Tourism.

About Visit Idaho: As the official tourism marketing arm for the State of Idaho, Visit Idaho (Idaho Tourism) serves to inspire travelers to visit and experience Idaho’s diverse, unique beauty, western culture and history, and outdoor adventure opportunities through engaging, helpful tips, information and resources. Tourism is Idaho’s third largest Industry and Visit Idaho is committed to growing Idaho’s economy and furthering positive economic impacts for Idaho’s businesses and residents.

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Will hosting the 2034 Olympic Games really put $6.6B into Utah’s economy?

Hosting the games would have “significant positive economic and fiscal impacts for the state,” the report says..

When the book closes on the 2034 Winter Olympics — assuming the International Olympic Committee flings it open as expected on July 24 with a vote naming Utah the host — the event will have added $6.6 billion and 42,000 “job years” to the state’s economy.

So says the Kem C. Gardner Institute, which on Wednesday revealed the results of its analysis of the economic and fiscal impacts of hosting the 2034 Games . The institute found that despite an anticipated drop in skier visitation during the five weeks of Olympic and Paralympic competition, hosting the Games would have “significant positive economic and fiscal impacts for the state.”

According to the Kem C. Gardner Institute, the state can expect to see a return of $2.6 billion in Games-related expenditures over the decade-long runup. And that can be extrapolated out to $6.6 billion in total economic impact, which includes $3.9 billion in state gross domestic product and $2.5 billion in personal income gains.

“It is interesting to see, especially that big spike in the year of the Games,” said John Downen, a senior research fellow for the institute. “But again, it is temporary, because it is a one-time event. Whereas something like the Legacy Foundation is more of an ongoing operation that has a persistent effect.”

Unusually for an Olympics, the 2002 Games finished with a $163 million surplus. Some $76 million of that went toward creating the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, which is charged with programming and upkeep at Utah’s Olympic venues.

The 2002 Games cost $4.3 billion in total spending, including $2.2 billion in the construction of structures like the Utah Olympic Oval and Utah Olympic Park. They returned $7.5 billion in total economic impact (in 2023 dollars), according to the institute. Bid organizers estimate the 2034 Olympics will cost $4.1 billion to put on, which includes $2.8 billion in “operating costs” and just $31 million in capital investments.

“We talk about construction and we’re happy we don’t have to spend as much as in ’02,” Brett Hopkins, the bid committee’s CFO, said Wednesday during the institute’s unveiling of its analysis. “Only to find out how it brings down the output in your calculations.

He joked, “We’re going to have to find a way to build more.”

That discrepancy aside, economic impact reports tend to be exceedingly optimistic, and economist Victor Matheson said this one is no different.

Matheson, a professor of sports economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, has written several published papers on the economics of the Olympics. He said he found some flaws with the Gardner report’s estimations, but he also found places where it cast the impact of the Games in a more realistic light than its 2002 counterpart.

“The problem with economic impact reports is they often do a lot of adding and multiplying, and they’re very bad at doing the subtracting,” he said. Still, “This one does some subtracting. And it’s some subtraction that had to be done.”

For example, Matheson applauded the report for recognizing that skier visits will likely drop in 2034 — something he said he didn’t think occurred to those creating the 2002 reports. The report notes that skier visitation declined by 5-9% at Utah resorts the last time the state hosted the Winter Games.

“This displacement could be mitigated in 2034,” the report suggests, “with planning, advanced marketing, and packaging of skiing with Olympic visits.”

When it comes to the job impact, Matheson gives the report considerably less credence.

He and two colleagues studied the actual effect the 2002 Games had on jobs and reported their findings in 2012 in a Journal of Economic Perspectives. They found that while some 35,000 job-years of employment had been predicted — and the institute estimated the final tally was closer to 44,700 — their research showed a boost of between 4,000-7,000 jobs.

For 2034, the report anticipates the creation of 42,000 job-years. Again, Matheson expects it to be closer to a fifth of that. Part of the problem is Utah’s low unemployment rate of 2.9%. An article published Tuesday by the Economist cites a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development study that found in areas where unemployment is low “the jobs mostly go to workers who are already employed, blunting the impact on the broader economy.”

Downen had not see either report. He said Matheson and his team were likely using different metrics or definitions of what constitutes a job. He also noted that the report doesn’t not reflect the longevity of employment, but rather job opportunities created by the event.

A more egregious data discrepancy, according to Matheson, is that the report credits the 2002 Olympics for leaps in tourism at the state’s ski areas and national parks and in its hotels and airports. Comparing the 15 years prior to Utah’s Olympics to the 15 years afterward, the report said ski tourism grew by 45% and park tourism grew by 30%. The Salt Lake City International Airport saw 30% more people come through after the Games and purchase of hotel rooms and other accommodations grew by a whopping 70%.

But that wasn’t all because of the Olympics, Matheson said, that was just America during an economic boom.

“Those numbers are true,” he said. “The problem is you can look at any state in the Western United States, and they would show similar types of numbers.”

Still, Matheson agrees that the Winter Games put Salt Lake City on the map in terms of potential tourist destinations. He said he feels the modern Olympics has only done that successfully for two hosts: Utah and Barcelona.

But that increase in tourism comes with its pitfalls. On Tuesday, some 3,000 protesters took to Barcelona’s streets to raise their objections to the throngs of tourists who now visit the Spanish city. In Utah, concerns over overcrowding at national parks and in the Cottonwood Canyons and mountain towns during ski season has also reached a tipping point.

Matheson said whether the state wants or needs that additional exposure is something organizers and state officials need to weigh before signing the host contract on July 24.

“That depends on if what you want is a city with a lot more tourism,” he said. “ ... and it’s not obvious that you always do.”

Hopkins agreed. He said that’s why the focus of the 2034 Games isn’t on bringing more people to Utah.

“One of the differences between ’02 and 2034 is, in ‘02 it was, ‘Let’s put Utah map. Let’s showcase it,’” he said. “The purpose of 2034 is totally different. 2034 is about the giveback. How can we strengthen community so these programs can be better in the future?”

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UOT and Travelzoo to provide free marketing for your tourism promotions

Utah Office of Tourism has teamed up with Travelzoo, a global deals publisher, to promote our state and help drive more visitors to our hotels and attractions. These deals will be featured on a Partner Promotions page on Travelzoo’s website and will be promoted on their media network from September 15–December 15.

The UOT will further promote through Visit Utah social media channels and at visitutah.com. All partners have the opportunity to submit an offer for consideration to be included on the dedicated TravelZoo page. Offers must be received by August 31 . Read our Travelzoo Opportunities FAQ (PDF). If you’re interested in receiving more information about this opportunity, please fill out the submission form below.

Note: Any Utah tourism business offering any discount to their visitors may be eligible for this free promotion opportunity.

Complete the form here .

State seeks additional funds for Shop In Utah

Thanks to Shop In Utah, millions of dollars of CARES Act funds are already being dispersed to hundreds of businesses and nonprofits throughout our industry.

Although Shop In Utah currently has requests exceeding the $25 million that was funded, we are working hard to secure additional CARES funding for this program. We encourage you to apply. The Governor’s Office of Economic Development will have additional information following the Utah Legislature’s special session later this month. Because all Shop In Utah applications are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis until funding runs out, it is important to apply soon.

Learn more about the progress of Shop in Utah then click the link on the COVID-19 Impacted Businesses Grant Program link

Senator Romney’s Tourism and Outdoor Recreation Town Hall

In partnership with Utah’s Office of Tourism and Office of Outdoor Recreation, Senator Mitt Romney hosted a virtual town hall with Utah businesses on Wednesday, August 12.

During this town hall, Senator Romney provided a brief update on discussions in Washington surrounding the next COVID-19 relief package, and fielded questions from participants. Representatives of Utah’s outdoor recreation and tourism industry shared how COVID-19 is impacting their operations.

Latest Travel Guidance

Last month, the state of Utah’s coronavirus team recently published an important article for our industry. The travel guidance page offers recommendations for those looking at travel during COVID-19. While it acknowledges that travel can increase your exposure to the coronavirus, it provides useful information for how to visit safely. These guidelines will help protect visitors and residents alike. The Utah Office of Tourism also provided this guidance for safe and responsible visitation . 

Utah Leads Together

Utah’s Economic Response Task Force released Volume 4 of the Utah Leads Together plan based on three core pillars: follow public health guidelines, stay engaged with the economy and assist those in need. Version 4.9 (PDF) provides guidance for restaurants operating 24 hours per day and restaurants with buffet service, among other updates. Utah’s health guidance system tracks counties and localities by color code to inform residents and visitors of area health guidelines.

Color-Coded Risk Phases

In close consultation with local health authorities and with the Utah Department of Health, Gov. multiple counties remain in the green “New Normal” phase.

As restrictions are lifted in the New Normal phase, the likelihood of COVID-19 spread is increased. Because of this, the general public are strongly encouraged to follow current federal and local public health precautions, including hygiene measures, physical distancing, face coverings, and symptom monitoring at group gatherings. Symptomatic individuals should not attend social gatherings.

Travelers should try to limit non-essential travel during the COVID-19 pandemic and are asked to use appropriate precautions when traveling. Some areas have imposed self-quarantine for travelers from Utah.

Yellow Low-Risk travel guidelines likewise request that the general public reconsider non-essential travel to areas with widespread community transmission of COVID-19. Within Utah, adhere to the guidelines of the geographical areas through which you are traveling. Most of Utah is currently in the yellow, Low-Risk phase or green, New Normal phase (with the exception of orange, Moderate Risk Salt Lake City as of 6/19) each recommending reasonable precautions and personal responsibility. There are exceptions and residents and visitors alike should be aware that areas may return to moderate or higher risk guidelines if required.

To help build and sustain consumer confidence, the guidelines encourage employers of all businesses to:

• Maintain flexible working arrangements (rotating shifts, remote work, etc.)
• Comply with distancing guidelines
• Screen daily when engaged with high-risk populations 
• Sustain increased cleaning regimen of high-touch areas while monitoring staff for symptoms and well-being.

Additional best practices for employers include educating their workforce about the threat of COVID-19 and what they should do to safe including posting signage at entrances.

Residents and visitors alike can expect businesses in green “new normal” areas to be available as follows:

• Businesses open and operating under enhanced hygiene and cleaning regimen with monitoring of workforce and customers.

Residents of Utah and visitors alike can also expect businesses in yellow “low-risk” areas to be available as follows:

• Dine-in service and bars are opened, with tables arranged so there is appropriate distance between diners. Increased hygiene practices for customers and staff.
• Hospitality, tourism and accommodations are opened with precautions taken for shared spaces; additional caution is taken with extra sanitation of all areas of the property. In addition, the guidelines recommend these businesses maintain signage to remind groups to follow social distancing guidelines and avoid congregating in common areas.
• As always, the guidelines also recommend that face coverings are worn in settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. 

Download the updated list of social and business Phased Guidelines . 

All of Utah’s Mighty 5 national parks as well as our national monuments, recreation areas and state parks are open, though some indoor services and resources may remain limited and visitors are advised to check official park pages and social media channels for current travel alerts and closures. At this time Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park and Four Corners remain closed.

Visit our Traveler Information page for additional resources and links and please let us know of updates or improvements to our information.

As an industry and as a state, we continue to execute on that plan to adapt, innovate and overcome through the pandemic. Indeed, roughout it all, Utah’s tourism industry had continued to inspire through innovation and resiliency .

For the latest information, sign up for the Utah Office of Tourism partner newsletter .

Who to Follow

• The state of Utah’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) information hub
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control Travel Health Notices and COVID-19 Information for Travel American Hotel & Lodging Association’s Coronavirus Resource Page
• U.S. Travel Association’s COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response
• The Utah Office of Tourism’s COVID-19 Traveler Information on visitutah.com, which includes the latest reports of closures or restricted activities.
• The Governor’s Office of Economic Development COVID-19 information page  
• Brand USA Coronavirus Industry Impact and Updates

If you’re worried about whether you may have COVID-19, please call the Utah Coronavirus Information Line at 1-800-456-7707.

• Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity

Office of Tourism

801-538-1900

[email protected]

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What Happened When Teton Pass Collapsed

In the most economically unequal county in the country, a closed road was a signal of a much bigger problem..

In the little town of Wilson, Wyoming, at the base of Teton Pass, there are a few hours every morning and evening which offer an unrivaled exercise in reflexes and awareness. The main street, pretty much the only commercial street in town, is also Wyoming Highway 22, a two-lane scenic byway which connects Wyoming’s Jackson Hole valley to the much more expansive stretches of Idaho. Most days, thousands of cars stream down over the perilous, steep and winding Teton Pass—every morning and back again in the evening, driven by harried, often inattentive commuters who may live as close as 20 or as far as 90 miles away. They reluctantly slam on the brakes to meet the 25-mph speed limit in Wilson, besieged by signs about pedestrians and also moose crossing the road. Which means: Wilson sure looks cute, but much of the year, it feels like trying to traverse an exit off the Long Island Expressway into Queens on a Friday afternoon.

That all stopped abruptly on June 8, when Highway 22 suffered a “catastrophic failure.” The failure was indeed so catastrophic that traffic over the pass stopped completely, in both directions.

On a curve high up the pass, the pavement began to crack. A separate mudslide a few miles lower closed the road to traffic, which ended up being a good thing, actually, because then the crack site collapsed in a landslide, obliterating the road. It’s always hard in these situations to know for sure, but most surmised that the disasters happened because unusually warm temperatures from climate change led to rapid snowmelt and unstable mountainsides.

This rural mishap made national news. It was picked up by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, CNN and Fox News. It went international on the AP newswire. But Wilson was quiet. Slightly malevolently, as a Wilson resident in a minuscule rented cabin, I rejoiced: Perhaps Teton County, Wyoming, would have finally have to deal with the utterly foreseeable, wholly ignored, miserable socioeconomic problems of its creation.

If you have never been to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, let me pause here to explain a bit about it. The town of Jackson is an incredibly special place thanks to its proximity to the Teton Range, the Gros Ventre Range, Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, and its incredibly abundant wild animals. Much of this beauty and wildness exists today because of ardent conservation and anti-development efforts which began in the early 1900s, or barely more than a decade after the first white people claimed land in Jackson Hole (after the Shoshone people had been killed or chased away).

Bitter fights over what and how much to conserve ebbed and flowed over the decades, but today, significant conservation wins are why it’s still so beautiful, and why it draws millions of visitors from all over the globe—who mostly come from places where the wildness and beauty have long been destroyed by human development. Teton County is only part of the preserved ecosystem lands, but as it stands, 97 percent of the county is public land, and about 3 percent is developable.

It’s also got amazing skiing and climbing, biking and rafting. It’s a great place to hang out if you like the outdoors. And so over the past few decades, the population in the town of Jackson has grown a bit, but more recently, tourism and trophy-home construction have skyrocketed. Already a town that is used to absorbing tourists—at least 1.6 million came to visit and stayed in hotels in 2021—it now also plays host to second (or third, or fourth) homes, residences that spend most of the year empty, but also require armies of people commuting in to serve and maintain them, even when empty.

This trend only accelerated during COVID, when just about every pretty, rural place, famous or not, found itself in a land rush. Yet in Teton County, years of poor management of development and weak local government have made Jackson an increasingly unlivable place, putting it on the sharp end as the example of the direction of our country—a direction I might dramatize as an indication of a new, sad, neo-feudal, have-and-have-not landscape. And so, for those who moved to Jackson but can’t afford rising rents like $3,500 for a very basic 2-bedroom apartment, they can start commuting, or leave the region altogether.

For some, leaving a home, a community, and friends is hard, so they don’t go far, and they keep working in Jackson. That’s why the traffic backs up in my little town of Wilson so often—people have to cross over those mountains from Idaho, and there is just one direct road over which to pass, a road that rises 2,500 feet in just over 5 miles in order to do so. And then it collapsed in a landslide.

More than 40 percent of the people who work in Teton County can no longer afford to live there. To be clear, these aren’t all low-wage service employees who staff T-shirt shops or clean toilets in our county’s many, often vacant luxury mansions or pricey hotel rooms. It includes teachers and nurses, sheriffs’ deputies and doctors, air traffic controllers, wildlife biologists, mountain guides, and other seemingly integral parts of a functioning community. And when the pass closed, none of these people had a reliable way to get to work. The shortest way to navigate around the pass is over another, smaller pass, around a mountain range, and up a river canyon. It takes at least two hours each way—not exactly something you’d want to add to your life in lieu of a one-hour commute that most already considered miserable and stressful.

When the pass failed, many individual community members in Teton County stepped up, letting people stay in their homes or camp on their land instead of driving four hours a day. It was admirable, perhaps, but cold comfort for people with families and homes on the other side of the state line. Some businesses and organizations, such as the school district, bent over backward to help with gas money, extra pay, altered schedules, and support. Others simply advised employees to find alternate routes to work.

For anyone living in or commuting into Jackson, the calls for more affordable housing are so tiresome that I, and many other local residents I know, don’t even want to hear about it anymore. To us, the incessant loss of local homes and rentals to luxury redevelopers and short-term rentals (some legal and some illegal), or the demolition of entire blocks in town for luxury condos or hotels, feels more like a symptom of a much deeper rot in the socioeconomic fabric of Teton County.

For commuters, the pass is and has been miserable on a daily basis already. It’s something to be endured even when the road is fine, and dry. It’s been the symbol of a failed community for years: Here it closed for avalanches, or icy surfaces; now for an accident; or when large trucks lose their brakes on the hairy descent into Wilson, and crash into trees, or the gas station, or overturn and spill their cargo all over the road.

The Town of Jackson and Teton County have for years utterly failed to mitigate the predictable problems dropped into the community by the frenzied, roaring development. They hardly even manage the development, instead offering the space up as essentially a gold mine for developers, while fabricating a mythology around “sustainability and deed restricting a trivial number of houses for the growing workforce.

Teton County has the dubious privilege of being by far the most economically unequal county in the nation. For example according to IRS statistics, in 2021, 94 percent of the income was claimed by about 3,000 families, or 21 percent of county households. That total came to just over $9 billion in income—and it’s mostly untaxed investment income, at that. Developers say they are adding jobs when what they mean is low-wage tourism and service jobs—and even much better-paying jobs already aren’t enough money to live in town. Doctors ( doctors! ) can hardly buy homes in Teton County, much less your wildlife biologist or artist or EMT or anyone who gives life and energy and cares about a community.

That’s before you even consider why this place is famous. The extenuating circumstance that differentiates Teton County is the wildlife that live here and the ecosystem they are part of: The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem here and the Serengeti in Tanzania and Kenya are the only two mostly intact ecosystems left in the entire global temperate zone. Here, it’s because much of the Greater Yellowstone has been protected thanks to fierce fighting against mining and development interests since the 1870s. Prescient conservationists pushed for the protection of the landscape beginning with Yellowstone National Park, the second largest in the lower 48. This conservation is the reason why only 3 percent of land in Teton County is private and developable—the rest of it is preserved. With the pass a disaster zone, suddenly tourists—mostly hoping to see this very ecosystem and its wildlife—couldn’t arrive over the pretty byway into Jackson Hole.

“The real issue is there are limits to growth here,” says Luther Propst, a Teton County commissioner. “The difference with this community in this region is the federal government decided a long time ago we wanted this landscape managed to protect wild landscapes and animals. But instead we have intense traffic congestion, 45 percent of our community workforce lives elsewhere, and there is still tremendous pressure for more growth after years of electeds letting developers have their way.”

In general, Teton County had a tough start to June. The landslide was preceded by a huge mudslide in a different location on the pass. Raging river flows flipped a raft and stranded tourists on a scenic float on the Snake River, requiring rescue. In town, mortified planning board members wrote a letter to the editor of the Jackson Hole News and Guide, the local newspaper, about how the town’s current rules tied their hands in the latest development inquiry—because nothing in the rules said it wasn’t allowed, they were forced to approve Utah-based Mogul Capital‘s wildly inappropriate 366,000-plus-square-foot luxury hotel with two sublevels (right next to a creek and between two critical areas for wintering wildlife).

The local community, which mostly doesn’t show up anymore to protest development proposals, actually found it within them to rally in outrage. The town council and mayor meekly declared a temporary moratorium on large developments … for 90 days. You can bet Mogul is regrouping, and will come back when the ban is lifted.

Locals are exhausted. “I have real questions about why we can’t take a break from development when we have all these problems from current development we can’t solve,” a community member told me. They are a health care worker, and requested anonymity because of fear of repercussions in what is still a relatively small town. “I’ve watched our electeds for 20 years, and no matter what they say during their campaign, every time these projects come up, they just roll over. Everything gets approved, and if a developer doesn’t get what they want, they just sue, sue, sue,” they said.

As building and traffic intensify, human life gets more stressful. When our wild animals lose more habitat and migration corridors to development for tourists and homes, they die. Past votes show local support for wildlife, for example with the recent approval of $10 million in wildlife crossings under Highways 22 and 390, near Wilson. But already one side of that corridor is facing potential redevelopment: as employee housing for the ski resort, and a built-out public transit center right where the underpasses come out. That means the wildlife, in this case mainly elk, mule deer, and moose, will not use it, won’t be able to migrate, and maybe will suffer. So, in short, the effort will end up a colossal waste of money, and goodwill.

This is the way things are done here: make a good step, shoot the other foot. Build some great local affordable housing, then approve 200 trophy homes, ensuring the affordable housing hole is actually deeper than when you started. Or focus on employee housing, which means that when people lose or change jobs, they lose their tiny cubicle home, too!

“We’re fighting multiple proposals by people with [cumulative] billions, with donated money, and even though we are part of one of two intact ecosystems left, we are losing serious connectivity every day,” says Jenny Fitzgerald, a wildlife biologist and executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance. “That fact is not felt by everyone who wants a piece of Jackson, because they can make a lot of money, and they don’t have a drop of care about the wildlife.”

The pass was never meant to be a corridor that propped up a community such as the one Jackson has become. As with many struggling resort towns, Teton County’s problems are human-caused. But here, it’s no longer possible for it to build out of its crisis; to do so would only further imperil the renowned ecosystem that is ostensibly the attraction—the heart of the only intact ecosystem in the temperate Western Hemisphere. It’s also worth noting the limitless demand for second homes here, which will always ensure a market and always keep prices high. When we cry about affordable housing without also demanding a building moratorium on bad projects that create slews of low-wage jobs and intensify traffic, it’s like merrily setting out to tame a forest fire with a watering can. Maybe we should all address the elephant in the room: Affordable housing is a Band-Aid, and what we have is a sucking chest wound called overdevelopment.

Sure, it’s a big lift to ask a part-time government who get paid less than lifeguards to be the vanguard solving the problems that poorly managed capitalism on a large scale has brought to their door. But it’s not impossible. After all, on June 28 the pass reopened, having been patched up in a temporary kind of way—by WYDOT contractors and federal dollars . It’s remarkable what can be achieved when someone in charge decides it is necessary.