Park City Chamber of Commerce | Convention & Visitors Bureau reveals Summit County Business Survey findings

The Chamber received over 300 responses for its Business Survey, informing it of community needs and the direction of programming and budgeting for FY '24. Photo: Park City Chamber/Bureau

PARK CITY, Utah – Park City Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau revealed its findings from the Summit County Business Survey in partnership with RRC Associates. The survey was deployed throughout February and collected over 300 responses, arming the organization with valuable feedback from members, local business owners, and employees.

“With excellent participation boasting hundreds of responses, we’re incredibly pleased with the level of engagement and we’re excited to use these results to continue relevant and curated programs for the local business community,” said Scott House, VP of Partner Services for the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau. “My biggest takeaway from the key findings was that we need to ensure our members and the local community at large that we are doing all we can to help preserve the character and integrity of Park City as a town while also supporting businesses with labor and staffing challenges. We’re already on the right track with these initiatives through our Legislative Policy Agenda, Sustainable Tourism Plan, and current and future programming.”

Survey respondents were mainly long-term (+10 years) members of the business community, 90% of which were within the Park City boundaries and 85% of which were Chamber members.

The top-rated issues found were community character/sense of place, labor supply, state and local regulations, affordable/employee housing, and waste compost and recycling issues.

Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau identified that respondents, which were comprised of business owners, senior leadership, managers, and frontline employees, valued specific membership benefits and are most concerned with the following:

• Revenue: Tourism remains a key source of revenue for respondents. Over half of respondents say that visitors account for at least 40% of their revenues.

• Chamber’s Impact and Performance: The Chamber’s work is valued by members. 86% say the Chamber is doing a good or excellent job.

• Benefits for Chamber Members: The most valuable benefit that members receive from the Chamber is help with marketing their businesses. Exposure on visitparkcity.com is the top-rated attribute.

• City and County Governments: Members also value advocacy and rate the Chamber’s work with City and County governments as the most important, followed by the state legislature.

• Events: Chamber events are highly valued as well. 60% have attended in the past year and 90% reported interest in one or more of the specific events listed. Lunchtime and early evening are the optimal times for members to be available.

• Preserving Park City and Labor/Staffing: The top-rated local issue is maintaining the character of the Park City community, followed by staffing concerns. Members are clearly concerned about labor supply as well as employee housing and transportation.Working with community partners to address labor supply, housing and transportation should remain a strong focus for the Park City Chamber.

This was the first year the Chamber opened the survey to include non-member participation, casting an even wider net for feedback and data collection.

The business survey revealed business owners are asking for more focused visitor marketing for shoulder seasons (summer and fall) to drive tourism. While the community sentiment survey revealed a need for down time in those months to recover from high-season.

“The great thing about having multiple surveys is we can take this data, and push it against that community sentiment survey and see there’s opportunity to grow business in these periods. But we also can’t ignore the fact the community needs respite at times. We can’t just look at one survey,” said House. “Data like this helps us get to that point of balance.”

Data supplied from community and business surveys informs the Chamber and other entities if its programs are headed in the right direction or need an adjustment, from events and communications and marketing to the Sustainable Tourism Plan and the Five-Year Strategic Plan.

“We’ll use this data to drill down on a final budget and program of work for our team going forward into fiscal year ’24,” he said.

These findings and results are already being implemented to inform and shape future programming, member benefits, and advocacy efforts on behalf of the Summit County business community. The Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau is appreciative for all community members who took the time to fill out the survey. For additional information about the Park City Chamber, visit parkcitychamber.com. For questions or comments regarding the survey, contact Scott House, VP of Partner Services, at ScottHouse@visitparkcity.com.