Hotel occupancy down in Davis County, but still high

LAYTON (Davis County Clipper) — The recession has definitely meant lower numbers of people are staying in area hotels.

But at 74.5 percent occupancy in Davis County hotels for August, that’s still the highest rate in the state, said Davis Area Convention & Visitor’s Bureau CEO Barbara Riddle.

However, it’s down considerably from the 87.2 percent of the previous August.

And the state’s rate of 63.6 percent was down nearly 11 percent from Davis County’s statistics.

“Lagoon has been strong for the month of August, and Antelope Island has been a strong attraction,” Riddle said.

“We also have individual business and leisure travelers, with Lagoon our largest attraction, a great draw throughout the summer months,” she said.

“Hill AFB is also always a strong consumer of rooms, as well,” Riddle said. It was attributed to the far higher hotel occupancy rate in North Davis vs. South Davis in a Clipper article, recently.

“The South hotels are kind’ve ‘in-betweeners,’” she said. “When Salt Lake is full, then compression, and that pushes business up to Davis County. Since they’re the closest, they’re the beneficiaries.

“When Layton is full, a lot of it pushes down. They (South) benefit when both or one are doing well.”

But she said there is more room capacity, these days, in Salt Lake County, such as with a new Holiday Inn Express that opened in West Valley City, among other properties.

In other CVB activities, Riddle noted that Davis County has received $142,000 in state Office of Tourism Co-Op grant. That’s up significantly from the current grant of $53,000. It includes funds for print advertising and updating of brochures, as well as updates to the website, which is now www.davis.travel.

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