Utah officials have begun a $1.8 million effort to re-brand Salt Lake City as “Ski City USA.”
A new set of flashy online and print advertisements touting the advantages of Salt Lake City as a ski destination were released Tuesday. The campaign zeroes in on the city’s proximity to the four major ski resorts in the Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons east of Salt Lake City. In addition, the ads highlight a number of other attractions that Visit Salt Lake Communications Director Shawn Stinson claimed only a city can offer.
“We stepped back and we said, what really makes Salt Lake stand apart? It is the fact that we are an urban destination. We have the cultural arts, we have hundreds if not thousands of restaurants, we have bars and nightlife. You can see live theater, you can see unbelievable concerts coming through town,” Stinson said.
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams stated in a news conference Tuesday that Salt Lake City’s combination of proximity, quality of ski terrain, nearness to a major airport and vibrant cultural attractions make it unique as a ski destination.
The shift in marketing to Ski City USA comes on the heels of last week’s purchase of Park City Mountain Resorts by Colorado’s Vail Resorts Inc.