🔥 Hottest Format
AI-Assisted Discovery
GA4 logged "AI Assistant" as its own traffic channel for the first time this summer — 450 sessions in June, 480 in July. DMOs nationally are racing to optimize for AI-search citation; UV should structure event pages (dates, pricing, location schema) now while the channel is still small.
📈 Rising Trend
Urban-Mountain Positioning
Visit Salt Lake's July 19 rebrand as "America's Mountain City" explicitly sells same-day access to city amenities and canyon recreation — the exact positioning UV's restaurant + outdoor content already covers. Watch this campaign's creative closely.
🎯 Paid Social Shift
Single-Event Micro-Campaigns
Pioneer Day Campaign hit $0.072 CPC in July and 4th of July hit $0.054 — both well below the account's $0.108 blended FB CPC. Tightly-scoped single-holiday campaigns are outperforming broad evergreen buys; worth templating for Labor Day and fall festivals.
🌐 Search Behavior
Event-Led Discovery
"Festival calendar" (4,780 clicks, $0.085 CPC) and "utah valley activities" (3,088 clicks) remain the top two paid search terms two months running. Event-intent queries continue to convert far above the account average.
Late-Summer Events, Zero Paid Support
2026 Freedom Festival Balloon Fest (6,066 views) and Utah County Fair & Rodeo (5,351 views) both cracked July's top 10 organically. Amplify with paid before the events pass.
Micro-Campaign Efficiency
Pioneer Day Campaign ($0.072 CPC) and 4th of July ($0.054 CPC) both beat the account's blended FB CPC by 40-60% in July. Template single-holiday campaigns for Labor Day and fall festivals.
State Tailwind Has Ended
Travel Utah's "Parks & Beyond" (ended Jun 15) and "Urban & Outdoors" (ended Jun 30) spring campaigns are both over, and "Ski & Winter" doesn't start until Oct 1. UV's paid budget carries summer/fall demand solo through Q3.
Restaurant Momentum Building
Restaurants page views up 39% June→July (4,739 → 6,567), and the evergreen FB restaurant campaign's CPC improved from $0.18 to $0.17 over the same window. Compounding efficiency worth reinforcing with budget.
AI Assistant Channel, Ground Floor
GA4's new "AI Assistant" channel grew from 450 to 480 sessions June→July. Small today, but structuring event pages for AI-search citation now is a low-cost, first-mover move.
Festival Calendar Still Dominant
"Festival calendar" remains the #1 paid search term two months running — 4,780 clicks in July at just $0.085 CPC. Defend this term aggressively; it converts far above account average.
Travel Utah / Utah OOT
State-level · Between campaigns
Campaign Status (July 2026)
Parks & Beyond Spring ended Jun 15, 2026
Urban & Outdoors Spring ended Jun 30, 2026
Next scheduled push is Ski & Winter, starting Oct 1, 2026 — no active state seasonal campaign through Q3
Trending Keywords
utah travel 2026utah road tripparks beyond utah
UV Action
No state co-tailwind through summer/fall. UV's own paid budget has to carry the "urban base camp" message solo until the Oct 1 Ski & Winter push resumes.
Visit Park City
Summit County · Premium competitor
Active Signals (July 2026)
Lodging market normalizing: June occupancy +3% YoY but ADR -4%; July occupancy -6% YoY while ADR rose +3%
Lodging partners holding pricing discipline over discounting — 6-month occupancy down 11%, rates down just 2%
Forward outlook calls for +2% occupancy next 6 months — first positive outlook in some time
Trending Keywords
Park City summer hikingPark City resortPark City lodging deals
UV Action
Park City's holding rates while occupancy softens — price-conscious travelers are in market right now. Lean into "same mountains, better value" messaging while their demand cools.
Discover Moab / Grand County
Southern Utah · $1.4M 2026 budget + $236K add-on
Active Signals (July 2026)
Grand County approved an extra $236K summer campaign (launched June) after July bookings ran 25.1% behind prior year, August 12.6% behind
Targets drive-distance travelers and those comparison-shopping Zion, Bryce, Sedona, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite
Messaging shift: early-morning recreation, indoor activities, evening entertainment, value/lodging-cost angle
Trending Keywords
Moab last minute tripArches campingUtah glamping
UV Action
Moab is actively bidding on drive-distance travelers right now — UV sits on that route. Build "stop in Provo on the way to Moab" gateway content to intercept their own paid audience mid-search.
Visit Salt Lake
SL County · Largest budget in state
Active Signals (July 2026)
Launched "America's Mountain City" rebrand Jul 19 — replaces 2021's "West of Conventional," leans on 2034 Olympics momentum
Sells same-day city + canyon access (40 min to Big/Little Cottonwood), culinary scene (Cosmica's NYT feature), Utah Mammoth sports tie-in
Salt Lake County visitor spending hit $4.2B in 2024 — largest tourism budget in the state, now backing a brand-new positioning
Trending Keywords
america's mountain citysalt lake city 2034 olympicsthings to do SLC
UV Action
SLC is now claiming the "urban base camp" positioning UV already uses. Differentiate on cost, crowd size, and date-night/restaurant content — SLC's rebrand skews sports and fine dining, not the date-night niche UV owns.
Colorado Tourism / Denver
Rocky Mountain competitor
Active Signals (July 2026)
No major new campaign identified this cycle — prior summer road trip targeting from LA, PHX, Dallas markets (same feeder cities as UV) assumed ongoing
Creator-led content dominance: Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts at scale
Competing for same "affordable family adventure" positioning
Trending Keywords
Colorado summer tripsRocky Mountain family vacation
UV Action
Target Denver feeder audiences directly. "Utah Valley: the Colorado alternative — closer national parks, lower crowds, same mountain vibes."
Meta Ad Library — Check These
Direct research links
Verify current competitor creative and active campaigns directly in Meta's Ad Library. These are the pages to search: