JIM GRAHAM - The Associated Press | Posted: Tuesday, March 7, 2006 11:00 pm
About 98,000 Mexicans come to Utah every year for vacation, and many of them are heading to the state's ski areas, where they spend an estimated $7 million.
When they arrive, chances are they'll be greeted by someone from Mexico working in the tourism industry, where Mexican nationals dominate service jobs. Park City, Wendover and Salt Lake City have the most Mexican-born residents in the state.
Those were among the findings in a new study released Tuesday by the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. Researchers who put together the $9,000 study, which began in August, said it's the first to take such a comprehensive look at trade, tourism, financial, education and demographic links between Mexico and Utah.
"I think we tend to focus on the hot button issues, which would be the undocumented (workers) and the inflow of the undocumented," said Ken Jameson, an economics professor on the research team. "And I think if there's one thing that the study should leave with everybody is that that's really only one very, very small portion of the overall relationship between Mexico and Utah."
The study indicates that rapid growth in links between Mexico and Utah is a trend that's likely to continue. Utah has stronger relationships with Mexico than any other state in the region that doesn't share a border with Mexico, except Colorado, according to the report.
In 2003, Utah's Hispanic population was about 9.9 percent, according to U.S. Census figures, although several university researchers Tuesday said the number would be closer to 16 percent if all undocumented immigrants were counted.
Utah businesses sold about $122 million in goods in Mexico in 2004; and imported about $308 million in Mexican-made items. Mexican-nationals paid about $67 million in state income, sales and property taxes in 2000, and own about $984 million in property in Utah. And Mexican immigrants who send money back to their families in Mexico pay at least $9 million a year in transaction fees to the state's financial institutions.
"It's a very important market for us," said A. Scott Anderson, chief executive officer and president of Zions First National Bank, which financed the study.
About a dozen companies are expected to take part in a state-sponsored trade mission to Mexico in April. Utah exports to Mexico are up about 25 percent since 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The majority of that trade is between small businesses.
Salvador Jimenez Munoz, Mexico's consul in Utah, asked the university to conduct the study to promote better relations with the state's businesses, lawmakers and citizens.
"How can we do this when the knowledge and information is based on misconceptions about our people who come to live and work in places like Utahfi" Munoz said at a news conference Tuesday. "That is why it is so important to us ... that we use objective and reliable information that describes the reality of the many contributions of Mexican immigrants."
At Ski Utah, a trade organization for the state's ski areas, officials said the value of Mexican tourism is critical. Mexicans are the third-largest international market for Utah's ski areas, after Canada and the United Kingdom, said Raelene Davis, Ski Utah's marketing director.
"A lot of Americans have this stereotype of Mexico that's just not true," Davis said. "They don't understand that lots of Mexicans have a lot of money and they want to come here."
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.