In 2019 and 2020, visitor stays in Park City and Summit County averaged about 4.5 days. But the length of those trips is on a downward trend.
While presenting the data to the Summit County Council Nov. 14, county Chief Financial Officer Matt Leavitt said it gave him the data gave him “a little bit of a raised eyebrow.”
In the past two years, the length of vacations in Summit County and Park City both have been about four days flat. That’s a year-round average. The data shows that vacations are longer during ski season than they are in the summer.
Summit County’s data, sourced from Placer.ai, also shows how long visitors spend in the county and Park City on a single day — estimating how long a skier from Salt Lake City spends in the market, for example.
That length of time is slightly down, too, but only by about 30 minutes to an hour from 2021 highs.
Meanwhile the number of unique visitors is slightly increasing, even if they're not staying as long.
Since the length of visitor stays peaked around the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of Leavitt’s theories is were some of the so-called digital nomads.
“Some of this data, again, might further support that idea that we had people who were remote working,” he explained to the county council.
Leavitt was presenting the data Nov. 14 during the county’s 2026 budget discussions. Summit County justifies sales taxes by proving the entire county — not just Park City — sees the impacts of tourism.
He estimates about 65% of Summit County’s sales tax revenue comes from tourists and non-residents.
Ski Utah President & CEO Nathan Rafferty explained why that matters to Utahns at the Park City Chamber of Commerce’s 2025 Fall Tourism Forum the week before the council's Nov. 14 discussion.
“We send skiers back to New York and San Francisco and Houston with great memories, and they leave money,” he said. “And we hopefully take care of our roads and our schools with that.”
But it varies, when those tourists visit. Park City visitation peaks in the winter around ski season.
Out in the county as a whole, the number of visitors peak in late summer and early fall. Leavitt’s data did not show where those people were going and spending money.
Budget discussions continue Wednesday, Dec. 3, with a public hearing at the Sheldon Richins Building in Kimball Junction.
Another hearing is scheduled for Dec. 10 in Coalville’s council chambers before a vote on the final FY2026 budget.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
