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County employment figures reflect an analysis of SIC employment data. To best reflect the variations in types and seasons of tourism among counties, two different calculations are used.

The first calculation estimates location quotients from 95 tourism-related industries. Location quotients estimate the portion of each indistry that is export related. Since tourism specific industires function as an export, location quotients provide an estimation of tourism related employment.

The second calculation used is minimum employment requirements. Minimum requirements assume that the difference between the lowest month's employment and the highest month's employment is the range of employees required to service travelers. Because neither calculation is a perfect estimation of tourism employment, an average of the two methods is reported. Local adjustments are also made as needed.

Six counties - Salt Lake, Summit, Utah, Davis, Washington and Weber - account for 80% of the measurable impacts of tourism in the state of Utah. Nonetheless, many rural Utah counties are much more dependent on tourism dollars than counties in the metro areas. Fewer employment opportunities due to a more focused economic base means that rural counties are often dependent on benefits from tourism industries.

Tourism dominates the economies of counties in the northeast and southeast regions of the state, comprising a significant portion of the county's employment base, tax receipts, personal income and business profits. Although more populous and more diversified economically than other rural areas, the southwest region of the state still depends heavily on tourism. The central Utah region and the northwest region remain less dependent on tourism. The four Wasatch Front counties are responsible for the bulk of tourism's impacts in Utah. However, because of the large employment base and diversified economy of these counties, tourism makes an important, although proportionally less significant contribution to these counties than elsewhere in the state.

Overall, tourism and travel related employment accounts for nearly 12% of all non- agricultural jobs in Utah. That makes tourism the 5th largest employment sector in the state, behind other major sectors such as services, trade, government and manufacturing.

Estimates of traveler spending are determined by assuming that traveler spending and travel- related employment is related. County distribution percentages are calculated by dividing the number of travel-reated employees in a given county by the total aggregated sum of all county's travel-related employment. This percentage becomes the distribution ratio. The distribution ratios for each county are multiplied by total statewide traveler spending to determine estimates for traveler spending in the respective counties. For example, in 2001, the distribution ratio for Davis County was 6.7%. Multiplying total statewide traveler spending ($4,150 million) by the distribtuion ratio for Davis County (6.7%) produces the Davis County Traveler Spending estimate (approximately $278 million).

Total statewide tax impacts are calculated based on historical average tax rates that indicate that aproximately 8% of traveler spending is collected for state and local tax revenues. Based on Utah's tax distrubution system, the local tax portion is roughly 26% of all tax revenues. County estimates of local tax impact are determined by assuming that local tax impacts are directely related to traveler spending and thus travel-related employment. Similar to the county estimate calculations for traveler spending, the distribution ratios (county tourism employment divided by total statewide tourism employment) for each county are multiplied by total statewide local tax revenues. For example, in 2001, the distribution ratio for Davis County was 6.7%. Multiplying total statewide local tax revenues ($86.3 million) by the distribtuion ratio for Davis County (6.7%) produces the Davis County Local Tax Impact estimate ($5.8 million).