Who visits the Great Salt Lake? People from all over the world

Editor's note: This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake.

MAGNA — The Great Salt Lake was one of Utah's first outdoor tourism destinations as its role as the "Crossroads of the West" grew in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Its interest is captured in an article about an atypically large Salt Lake City tourism year in 1909, tied to railroad travel to events or interest in Los Angeles, Seattle and Yellowstone National Park.

"Passenger travel was never before so large, and there are few travelers to any of those other places that do not, going or coming, pass through this city, and, in passing, (they) spend some time here, marveling at the beauties they see," the Salt Lake Herald-Republican wrote on July 11, 1909, listing the Great Salt Lake and Temple Square as two of the biggest draws.

This was a common theme until about World War II, says Dave Shearer, manager of the Great Salt Lake State Park. Interest in the lake dropped off with the growth of mountain recreation and automobiles that made those types of remote locations more accessible.

It's a trend that remained in place until about two decades ago. Interest in the Great Salt Lake began to return after Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Last year was an especially busy year, doubling visitation in less than a decade. Its interest on a global scale remains today as evidenced by the Great Salt Lake State Park's visitor log.

Those who came to the park during a busy 2024 included people from all 50 U.S. states and dozens of countries worldwide, according to a breakdown of visitors who signed the park's visitor log last year that park officials released on Thursday.

People from six of the world's seven continents explored the lake last year.

"It's because the Great Salt Lake is something they said they've gotta go see," Shearer says. "They've got to come out here and view this large body of water that is almost as famous as the Dead Sea."

The rise and fall of Great Salt Lake's popularity

The Great Salt Lake's water levels aren't the only aspect of the giant body of water that has fluctuated since pioneers arrived in 1847. Modern-day interest in the lake has also had its ups and downs.

It became alternatively known as the "Coney Island of the West" because the Saltair and other activities drew people to the lake at the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century.

Historian John McCormick once noted, in Utah History Encyclopedia, that the lake was used to "help demonstrate that Utah was not a strange place of alien people and customs" around the time it finally gained statehood. Its interest peaked in the 1920s with crowds of nearly 500,000 coming in just for the Saltair alone before it burned down.

The Saltair was rebuilt but it never saw the same levels of interest ever again. By World World II, interest in the lake altogether had changed as other outdoor options became more desirable.

Despite some efforts to make the Great Salt Lake a national park, relatively low interest in the lake — especially locally and nationally — essentially continued for decades until the 2002 Winter Olympics highlighted Salt Lake City.

"It used to be that the Great Salt Lake was not that well known or popular in America," Shearer said. "(After the Olympics), people in America got to know the Great Salt Lake a lot more — and Utah."

International interest also changed after 2002, but he adds that people outside of the U.S. already knew about the lake. First, it's located near Salt Lake City International Airport, but it's generally lumped in with Temple Square and Utah's five national parks as places worth checking out while in the Beehive State.

It's received even more interest in recent years. Some of it has to do with a renewed passion for the lake as it reached record lows that sparked efforts to save it, but Shearer said interest also grew after the COVID-19 pandemic spurred outdoor recreation and people fell in love with the lake again.

Park visitation jumped from 83,600 people during the 2019 fiscal year to over 190,000 five years later, according to the Utah Division of State Parks visitation data.

"It's been increasing every year since COVID," he said. "Even when other parks started to drop in their attendance after COVID, we didn't. We just continued to climb."

A global destination again

Park visitation soared in 2024 as the lake reached its highest levels in at least five years.

The state park generated more than 240,000 visits in 2024, when adjusting data from fiscal year — July 1 through June 30 — to the calendar year. The final number will be higher than that as the division has yet to release November or December data, but it's already doubled many of the recent pre-pandemic years.

Its total visits include a big boost from people coming in from Asian countries like China, Vietnam and South Korea, as well as many European and South American countries. Many visits, especially from international or out-of-state tourists, are only an hour tops as people come to just see the lake to be able to say they've been there.

Those who come to sail or wade in the waters stay a little longer.

Foreign visitors are blown away by its size, Shearer says. However, he's also watched an increase in lifelong Utah residents telling him they decided to check it out for the first time. Many people from that realm, he adds, walk away pleasantly surprised with their experience.

"They say, 'It's just beautiful out here,'" he said. "That's a very common thing from the locals."

Related topics