From red rocks and ski slopes and mountain peaks to serene lakes, Utah’s picturesque scenery draws people looking to find spots they saw on social media — and then post their own photos.
Three cities in Utah made a list of “Instagrammable” small cities across the country, according to a Heepsy analysis recreated by The Salt Lake Tribune that looked at hashtags on the social media platform.
Utah also is among the top states for Instagram hashtags, according to a Tribune analysis.
Tourism in the state has been growing “pretty consistently” during the past decade, said Ben Cook, director of marketing and communications for the Utah Office of Tourism.
That’s not solely because of social media, he said, but as Instagram, TikTok and other platforms have grown in popularity, they have become a source of travel inspiration and information.
And Utah has lots of fodder for inspiration, Cook said.
“We live in a place where Mother Nature played favorites,” he said.
The state also uses social media to encourage people inspired to travel here to do so responsibly, Cook said.
Local tourism agencies also use social media to stress safe, sustainable and responsible travel in popular destinations like Moab, Kanab and Park City.
Social media is useful for engaging with fans and keeping Park City “top of mind when thinking about potential travel opportunities, said Dan Howard, vice president of communications for Visit Park City.
Moab in top three for small cities, Utah high overall
Heepsy, a marketing platform for social media influencers, looked at Instagram hashtags in 50 cities with fewer than 300,000 residents.
The Salt Lake Tribune recreated that study, removing Portland, Oregon and Carmel, California because the populations cited in the analysis were for different cities.
Moab, Park City and Kanab all made the list, with Moab coming in third for hashtags per square mile and 11th for overall posts.
Most posts tagged with Moab were from Arches and Canyonlands national parks or surrounding red rocks where people can drive or bike off-road.
Park City cracked the top half for overall posts and hashtags by area but fell to Breckenridge in density despite more posts overall.
Kanab rounded out the list for overall posts and beat out three cities in hashtag density.
As a whole, Utah also is more “Instagrammable” than most other states.
There are nearly 16 million posts tagged #utah, more than all but 10 other states. That is lower than the average, but more than 100 million tags for California and New York skew the numbers.
Neighboring states are also popular, with 32 million posts tagged in Colorado, 25.6 million tagged in Arizona and 9 million in Nevada.
Utah has about 188 tags per square mile, putting the Beehive State in 24th for density of posts.
Tourism industry uses social media to encourage responsible travel
Those posts, and social media in general, play a big role in tourism, Cook said.
He pointed to a 2023 American Express Travel report on its annual travel trends survey that found:
75% of respondents decided to travel to a particular destination because of social media.
49% of respondents wanted to travel somewhere that would look great in photos and videos.
48% of respondents wanted to travel somewhere they could “show off on social media.”
It was less common in this year’s survey, with 39% of respondents looking to social media for travel inspiration, but it’s still made the tourism industry adapt.
“All of the campaigns that we run to draw visitors to Utah extend to social media as well,” Cook said.
Visit Park City views social media as a “nurturing” tool instead of a sales tool, said Howard, the group’s vice president of communications. Instagram and other social media platforms help keep Park City on people’s minds as a destination.
Timing is everything when it comes to success with social media posts reaching an audience, Howard said.
Last year, he said, Visit Park City posted a powder skiing video as the “winter faucet turned on around the holidays” and it got more than 100,000 views on Instagram.
But it’s hard to consistently have viral posts “unless you’re a Kardashian with a publicist and massive production budget behind you,” Howard said. Social media is a balance of goals, resources and timing, he said.
“I think that we have done a pretty good job in the past and will likely keep our current presence as is to highlight the town and how it shines,” he said.
Cook, with the state’s tourism office, stressed the agency doesn’t post spots locals want to keep protected — largely because “popular places just can get inundated.”
Shuttle lines at Zion National Park and cars circling to find spots at popular viewpoints in Bryce Canyon National Park are just two examples of that.
The crush is so much that public officials are complaining. Gov. Spencer Cox was one of several governors to sign on to a letter calling on the federal government to tame overcrowding at national parks in Utah and the West as a whole.
The Utah Office of Tourism gets why people want to come here, Cook said — the state has “so many amazing places. But the state agency wants to make sure people travel thoughtfully and responsibly, he said.
Through its own social media posts, Cook said, the office tries to balance resident and visitor interests, while encouraging people to support local businesses and to be safe.
“We want people to come to Utah, we want them to spend more and go home,” he said. “And we want them to go home in the same car they came in.”
To stay safe, the state has some key tips:
Be prepared for the altitude change.
We’re in a high-alpine desert. Drink lots of water.
Some places are best accessed with a guide, especially outside the national parks and off the beaten path.
Follow the rules and safety guidelines of whatever attraction you’re visiting, like staying inside barriers on trails.
Megan Banta is The Salt Lake Tribune’s data enterprise reporter, a philanthropically supported position. The Tribune retains control over all editorial decisions.