STATE TOURISM CONFERENCE POSTPONED

Salt Lake City – The State Division of Travel Development (Utah Travel Council) has postponed the “Utah! Tourism Summit 2003” scheduled for September 24-26 in Cedar City.

“It has become painfully clear that too many conflicts have arisen at this time of the year for our tourism conference participants to have a meaningful and fulfilling conference,” said Spencer Kinard, assistant director of the Utah Travel Council. “After consulting with tourism leaders, we have decided it is in the best interest of most people to postpone the conference, probably until next spring,” he said.

Recent conflicts of schedules with several key legislators, county leaders and other government officials, along with the difficulty of many major Utah tourism stakeholders to be available at this time made it necessary to reconsider holding the conference now.

The “Utah! Tourism Summit 2003” was to have been held at the Hunter Conference Center on the campus of Southern Utah University next week, Wednesday through a noon luncheon on Friday. Major speakers and presenters at the conference have been or will be contacted inviting them to meet with Utah’s tourism industry representatives at a later date, either at a statewide tourism conference or at one of the smaller, regional conferences the Utah Travel Council produces.

The purposes of such conferences are to assist Utah’s tourism industry in the development, marketing and promotion of Utah’s tourism attractions and destinations. Some of the facilitated gatherings in the past have been more productive and easier to attend when done on a smaller scale at various places around the state. Efforts will be made to do that with some of the conference seminar subjects that were planned for the Cedar City Summit.

The Utah Travel Council regrets any inconvenience the postponement causes anyone, especially the partners and sponsors in Cedar City who have worked so hard to host the conference. “Iron County Tourism and the Utah Shakespearean Festival had some wonderful plans to host and entertain the conference visitors, and we greatly regret we won’t be able to take advantage of their hospitality at this time,” said Kinard.

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