The site received first place in the 2009 Best of the Web competition, sponsored by the National Center for Digital Government. The annual awards program recognizes the most innovative and user-friendly state and local government portals.

“We are using technology to connect with citizens, and this award shows that we are doing it well,” Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert said. “Utah.gov not only presents Utah government in a unique way, more importantly it provides better access to services than ever before.”

The Best of the Web competition evaluates state, city and county Web sites on their innovation, Web-delivery of public services, efficiency, economy, and functionality for improved citizen access. Utah.gov was also awarded first place in the competition in 2003 and 2007, making Utah the only state to win the award in consecutive eligible years.

Utah.gov is the state of Utah’s official Web portal (http://www.utah.gov) and is a collaborative effort between the state of Utah and Utah Interactive, LLC, a Salt Lake City-based, wholly owned subsidiary of eGovernment firm NIC.

“Utah.gov serves many key purposes that are priorities for my administration, including government efficiency and transparency,” Governor Herbert said. “The site allows Utahns to conduct business with their state agencies online, 24 hours a day, and provides access to a wealth of information about their government.”

In 2008, Utah.gov averaged more than a million unique visitors per month. Among the many services available online, more than 100,000 businesses have been created in Utah using the state’s One-Stop
Business Registration service, almost 1 million safety inspections are processed electronically per year, and some 4.1 million web-based job referrals through the Department of Workforce Services jobs.utah.gov have been made in 2009 alone.

“As we continually work to improve Utah.gov, we look carefully at what Utah citizens are asking for and attempt to deliver technology and web-based solutions that meets their needs,” said J. Stephen Fletcher, the state’s chief information officer. “Utah citizens have demanded that we provide more and more of our
services online, and we have met that charge.”

The new design of Utah.gov is focused on providing increased access to government services and usability for the citizens of Utah. Utah.gov currently provides more than 860 online state government services. New features include location awareness, a new multimedia portal, Web 2.0 services, a data portal, forms search capabilities, and mobile applications.

In addition to the Best of the Web award, the State of Utah also received top honors in the following categories from the Center for Digital Government:

Government-to-business: The Department of Public Safety’s Safety Media Portal is a web application developed exclusively for communicating current public safety news, information and alerts to media outlets. The first-of-its-kind site provides a comprehensive view into current statewide law enforcement activities and includes sections for news releases and multimedia downloads. The site also incorporates pushed alerts to RSS and SMS feeds via Twitter on breaking news and developing stories.

Government-to-government: The Utah Public Meeting Notice Website increases government transparency by allowing citizens to search by topic or government organization for public meetings scheduled throughout the state. Visitors to the site have access to details associated with both past and upcoming public meetings, including address, date, time, and agenda.

Check out the official Utah website. It’s very attractive with beautiful flash videos of sites around Utah. You can see how this site won the award for the top government site in the nation.

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Delta spokesman Anthony Black says the airline will suspend the route from Oct. 1 to May 14, when flights are set to resume.

Delta just recently launched the nonstop flights from Salt Lake to Tokyo in June (every day except Tuesdays and Saturdays).

Delta CEO Richard Anderson has said the airlines has seen its revenue stream decline by billions of dollars because of the weak economy and the drop-off in demand for air travel. The airline previously announced it plans to cut international capacity by 15 percent starting in September.

The Utah Outdoor Adventure Expo is utilizing the entire Utah State Fairpark. Featuring Utah’s vast outdoor resources and travel destinations, this will become Utah’s premiere event to officially kick start your summer fun with a mix of traditional outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, camping and hiking combined with high adventure rock climbing, river rafting and hang gliding, this is the only event that will bring activities and adventure travel to one location, hand in hand as a one stop shop for summer adventures.

Highlighted activities range from Utah’s biggest bowhunting gathering and KCBS sanctioned Wild West Barbecue Showdown to outdoor arts, canoe and kayak demonstrations on the Jordan River and off highway vehicle activities.

The Expo even includes one of Utah’s largest outdoor travel industries—the ski industry, which will offer discount season passes and a refreshing recreational escape from the hot summer months ahead.

Whether your biggest outdoor excursion takes you to your backyard patio or into the rugged backcountry wilds of Utah, this Expo is the trailhead to your next outdoor adventure. Featuring a hands-on approach to traditional outdoor activities like hunting, fishing, camping and hiking to high-adventure rock climbing, and aviation, the expo celebrates Utah’s rich and exciting outdoor lifestyle.

The Expo is open Friday, June 5 from 12-9 p.m. and Saturday, June 6 from 9 a.m.-9 p.m.;cost is $10, free for children 12 and under. In honor of our Hometown Heroes we will provide free admission to active and retired Military, Law Enforcement, Fire Fighters, EMTs, etc. with ID.) As a special thanks to our valued guests, we will be providing free
parking to everyone who attends.

For more information about the Utah Outdoor Adventure Expo, visit
http://www.UtahAdventureExpo.com.

We hope you enjoy our incredible outdoors in Utah this summer.

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The public is invited to join members of the hospitality and travel communities for free iPod tours and a special abbreviated bicycle tour, along with a drawing for several “Salt Lake Connect” passes.

National Travel and Tourism Week began  last Saturday and continues through this coming Sunday, May 17th. The Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau leaders and local government and business leaders are promoting the message that “Travel Matters.”  And to prove the point that travel really does matter locally they pointed out some rather remarkable statistics about Salt Lake City tourism.

For example,  In 2008, the Salt Palace hosted 273,974 convention delegates who, combined, spent more than $243 million while they were visiting in Salt Lake and generated nearly $22 million in tax revenue, the bureau said.

Here’s another impressive statistic reported by the Bureau…General visitor spending in Salt Lake County topped $1 billion in 2008, generating nearly $100 million in state, county and city taxes.

That’s a lot of money, so the next time you see a tourist or convention attendee walking around Salt Lake City, smile and go out of your way to be friendly to them…they are paying a lot (nearly $100 million) of our local taxes for us.

Click for more information from the Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau

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