SALT LAKE CITY -- The sluggish economy may finally be catching up to Utah's $6 billion-a-year tourism industry.

The state received $11 in tax revenue for every dollar it spent on its summer advertising campaign this year, down from about $17 last year, tourism officials said Thursday.

But they maintained that they're thrilled with the return on the investment, even though it represents a decline.

"The fact our campaign generated an $11 return for every dollar spent is actually phenomenal," said state tourism board member Steve Lindburg.

The summer advertising campaign lasted from March to October and cost nearly $4 million. In terms of total spending in the state, Utah received $143 for every $1 it spent on advertising during that period -- down from $215 last year.

Denise Miller, vice president of Strategic Marketing & Research Inc., told the state's tourism board that Utah is still outperforming other states.

"If we didn't have last year to compare to we'd be saying these are wonderful results and celebrating," Miller said.

Still, Utah has some trouble spots.

Los Angeles is one of the state's most important tourism markets and an increasing number of people there are choosing to vacation in California.

Overall, the percentage of people reporting a leisure trip anywhere this summer, not necessarily just Utah, fell from 75 percent to 71 percent.

In a tough tourism environment, the state's ads also aren't as effective as they were last year, according to Miller's research. In national surveys and targeted markets in Denver, Los Angeles and Phoenix, the percentage of people who could recall Utah's ads fell 13 percent.

"This year the recall of advertisements was down fairly significantly," she said. "Some of this may have been on part of the economy. ... They had other things they were concerned about. You were also competing with 7 billion political ads."

However, Miller pointed out that other competitive states such as California, Wyoming and Arizona performed worse than Utah did.

While tourism is of growing importance to state revenues, the summer season is the least important time of year for the state.

Winter, on the other hand, is make-or-break time because skiers tend to spend more per day and stay longer than other tourists. The state's winter advertising campaign began last week.

Republican Gov. Jon Huntsman has made growing the state's tourism industry and improving the state's image a cornerstone of his economic development plan.

In the past three years, the number of visitors to the state annually has increased from about 17 million to 20 million. The estimates are based on several factors, including tax collections at airports, car rentals, hotels and restaurants.

Huntsman has set a goal of increasing the number of visitors to Utah by 25 percent in the next four years.

The state tourism office's annual advertising budget increased to $11.7 million starting July 1, up from about $900,000 when Huntsman took office.

Tourism leaders said the research presented Thursday will help persuade legislators to keep investing in tourism.

• On the Net:

Utah Office of Tourism http://utah.travel/