What Visit Salt Lake does

Visit Salt Lake is a private, non-profit Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) founded in 1984 and headquartered at 90 South West Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. The organization serves as the official tourism promotion entity for Salt Lake County, driving a $6.1 billion annual visitor economy. Its core product is a comprehensive destination marketing website platform built on Simpleview CRM that aggregates visitor information across event calendars, restaurant directories, attraction listings, accommodation referrals, and editorial content organized by neighborhood and season.

The product portfolio extends across vertical-specific service lines including Meetings & Conventions (Salt Palace Convention Center coordination), Sports Tourism (venue access at Rice-Eccles Stadium and America First Field), Film Commission (location scouting and permits for Hollywood productions), and Travel Trade (FAM trips and cooperative marketing for tour operators). Monetized product add-ons include the Salt Lake Attractions Pass and Salt Lake Explorer Pass (offering 50%+ savings on attractions), the Salt Lake Sips Trail (mobile pass-guided craft beverage tour), and a Local Crafts & Gifts Shopify e-commerce shop. A Partner/Member Program serves local tourism businesses with marketing support and networking.

The business model is non-profit and funded through hotel/motel tax revenue, membership fees from local tourism businesses, and government appropriations, rather than direct consumer pricing. The go-to-market motion is hybrid: event-driven through co-production of major events including the 10th Annual Silicon Slopes SUMMIT (20,000+ attendees) and Kilby Block Party (25,000 daily attendees), combined with community-led outreach via local partnerships across hospitality, cultural, and regional stakeholder networks. Marketing channels include content marketing, email newsletters, social media, earned media from Travel + Leisure and Fodor's recognition, and direct sales through convention center and visitor information center presence.

Name

Visit Salt Lake

Legal name

Visit Salt Lake

Website

https://visitsaltlake.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1984

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Visit Salt Lake is the official non-profit Destination Marketing Organization for Salt Lake County, promoting a $6.1 billion visitor economy through a Simpleview CRM-powered website, event co-hosting (Silicon Slopes SUMMIT, Kilby Block Party), and multi-vertical services for meeting planners, sports organizers, film productions, and leisure tourists.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Destination Marketing and Tourism Promotion Services

NAICS

Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water (487210), Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation (487), Scenic and Sightseeing Transportation, Water (48721)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900), Services-Membership Sports & Recreation Clubs (7997)

akta.pro primary industry

Sightseeing & Scenic Boat Tours (Harbor, Sunset, Dolphin/Whale Watching) (THAJAJAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

Resort & Hotel Water Parks (On-Property Guest-Access Parks) (THAAABAC)

Keywords

• Destination marketing services
• Tourism promotion
• Convention and meeting services
• Visitor information platform
• Attraction pass products

Headquarters

HQ city

Salt Lake City

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Tourism Marketing & Promotion Services: Visit Salt Lake operates as a Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) funded through a combination of hotel/motel tax revenue, membership fees from local businesses and partners, and potentially government appropriations. The organization promotes Salt Lake's $6.1 billion visitor economy.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Visit Salt Lake operates the official destination marketing website and content platform for Salt Lake City, aggregating visitor information on attractions, events, restaurants, and accommodations. It produces standalone visitor products (Attractions Pass, Explorer Pass, Sips Trail, merchandise shop) and dedicated B2B services for meeting planners, sports organizers, film productions, travel trade, and member tourism businesses across Salt Lake County.

Product overview

Visit Salt Lake operates as the official destination marketing organization (DMO) for Salt Lake City and surrounding areas. The organization's primary product is a comprehensive destination marketing website and content platform that aggregates tourism information across multiple service categories. The core platform includes a website providing visitor information with integrated modules for event calendar management, restaurant directory, attractions and activities booking, and accommodation referrals. Additional value-added services include the Salt Lake Attractions Pass and Salt Lake Explorer Pass (discount attraction bundles), the Salt Lake Sips Trail (craft beverage tour experience), and the Blog/Stories content hub for editorial destination marketing. Supporting services target specific verticals including meetings/conventions, sports tourism, film production, and travel trade professionals. The organization also operates a partner membership program for local tourism businesses and a merchandise e-commerce shop. The portfolio represents a content-and-services platform model centered on destination promotion rather than a traditional SaaS product.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Salt Lake Attractions Pass Discount bundle pass providing savings of over 50% on admissions to top attractions and venues throughout Salt Lake, targeted at leisure visitors planning multi-stop itineraries.
• Salt Lake Explorer Pass Sightseeing pass providing discounted access to multiple Salt Lake attractions and activities for visitors.
• Salt Lake Sips Trail Self-guided mobile pass tour experience of Salt Lake's microbreweries, distilleries, and cideries featuring award-winning craft beverages for sampling by visitors.
• Visit Salt Lake Partner/Member Program Membership program for local tourism-dependent businesses (hotels, restaurants, attractions, venues) that provides marketing support, cooperative promotional resources, and networking as a funding and engagement channel for the DMO.
• Visit Salt Lake Local Crafts & Gifts Shop E-commerce shop for Salt Lake-themed merchandise and local artisan products, operated via a Shopify storefront linked from the official Visit Salt Lake website.
• Meetings & Conventions Services B2B service line for meeting and convention planners, providing venue information, bid packages, hotel block coordination, and event support at Salt Palace Convention Center and Mountain America Expo Center.
• Sports Tourism Services B2B service line for sports event organizers and visitors, providing venue information and event hosting support across Salt Lake's athletic facilities.
• Film Commission Services B2B service line supporting film and television productions shooting in Salt Lake, providing location scouting and film permit coordination services.
• Travel Trade Services B2B resources for travel agents and tour operators, including FAM trips, itineraries, and cooperative marketing opportunities.

Quantifiable outcome

• Drives $6.1 billion visitor economy supporting tax relief for Salt Lake County residents
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Silicon SlopescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 4 February 2026Silicon Slopes and Visit Salt Lake co-produce SUMMIT, an annual four-day global innovation festival held across multiple downtown venues. This partnership positions Salt Lake as a tech and economic hub while driving significant tourism traffic. The 2026 event marked its 10th anniversary and expanded into a city-wide experience.
• Salt Flats BrewingminorGTM or Marketing PartnerSalt Flats Brewing created the 'Save the Lake Pilsner' featured at Snowbird's Oktoberfest, with a portion of proceeds supporting Great Salt Lake conservation efforts. This partnership aligns culinary tourism with environmental stewardship.
• Kilby CourtcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVisit Salt Lake promotes Kilby Block Party, the largest indie music festival in Salt Lake, which draws approximately 25,000 daily attendees from around the world to the Utah State Fairpark. The event has grown from humble garage venue origins to a major festival.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Visit Denver: Denver's official DMO and the closest comparable peer: a similarly sized mountain-adjacent US city destination marketing organization with a comparable funding model (lodging tax), event-led GTM, and outdoor-plus-urban positioning.
• Visit Boise: Boise's DMO is a direct peer in the 'mountain-meets-tech-hub' positioning tier: a mid-size western US city DMO with a similar blend of outdoor recreation and a growing tech economy narrative, overlapping target visitors.
• Visit Phoenix: Phoenix's official DMO is a comparable peer as a large western US city destination marketing organization with a similar lodging-tax-funded structure, sports-tourism emphasis, and meetings/conventions division.

Broad incumbents

• NYC & Company: NYC's official DMO is a much larger incumbent destination marketing organization with a broader portfolio across leisure, meetings, and film commissions — structurally the same DMO model but operating at materially greater scale and budget.
• Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board: LA Tourism is a larger incumbent city DMO with overlapping film commission and conventions verticals, operating the same destination-marketing model at a significantly larger budget and visitor-economy scale.
• Visit California: Visit California is a state-level DMO operating a similar destination-marketing and content-driven model but at a much larger geography and budget, often partnering with city-level DMOs like Visit Salt Lake on international campaigns.
• Brand USA: Brand USA is the national DMO for the United States, operating a destination-marketing and content platform model comparable in spirit to Visit Salt Lake but at a national scale with significantly larger marketing budgets.

Regional players

• Park City Chamber of Commerce: Park City Chamber is the destination marketing organization for Park City, Utah — a direct intra-state competitor for ski and outdoor tourism with a similar lodging-tax-funded model and overlapping visitor base.
• Aspen Chamber Resort Association: Aspen Chamber is a regional mountain-resort destination marketing organization competing for similar high-spend ski and lifestyle travelers, operating a similar lodging-tax-funded marketing model at a smaller but premium visitor scale.
• Visit Tampa Bay: Visit Tampa Bay is a similarly sized US city destination marketing organization with a comparable meetings/sports/leisure division structure, serving as a useful same-tier benchmark for DMO operating scale and revenue mix.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/VisitSaltLake

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Visit Salt Lake