The Summit County government is using a new artificial intelligence tool to track visitors entering and exiting the area to better understand the impacts of tourism on the local economy.
County Economic Development and Housing Director Jeff Jones demonstrated the software for the County Council on Wednesday. He said the tool, known as Placer.ai, purchases and aggregates cell phone data to display trends within a programmed search area.
However, Jones said the software does not allow the county to track individuals or specific cell phones, emphasizing the artificial intelligence’s adherence to privacy laws.
Placer.ai lets the county analyze “point data” or “polygon data,” according to Jones. He described point data as tracking how many people go to a certain location and how often, such as the library or the Basin Recreation Fieldhouse. Meanwhile, polygon data is information tied to an overarching geographical area, like any land within the boundaries of the Park City Fire District or the City of Coalville.
The tool sorts people based on their location, categorizing cell phone users into full-time residents, commuters, non-resident visitors from other areas of Utah and out-of-market visitors from other states.
“There are also workforce metrics,” Jones said. “It can show the number of employees, the number of people that work within that geographic area that’s defined within that polygon boundary, and then inbound commuters.”
Jones showed the County Council a graph of out-of-market visitors in Summit County between 2019 and 2025 based on Placer.ai data as an example. The graph displayed the county receiving 5.2 million visitors in 2019 compared to 5 million in 2025.
“2022 shows up in the data as a peak,” Jones said, referring to the 5.7 million visitors in Summit County that year. “I think most of us would agree with what we’re seeing there. Remember when everyone was all pent up and then there was this explosion of getting outside and, as the pandemic was lifted, getting together again? We’ve seen things trail off since 2022.”
Overall, Jones said Placer.ai demonstrated a trend the county has been predicting for the past few years — a decline in both visitorship and how long tourists stay in the area. However, he said the county is not necessarily in a dire situation because it is still meeting its revenue goals, which indicates that visitors are spending money at a higher rate than in the past.
“If rates soften and visitors decline, then we’re going to have less revenue going forward,” Jones said. “We can assess the market as to what is happening, but we can’t tell you why it is happening.”
Jones said the software is customizable and can be used to study specific events with an economic impact in Summit County as well, such as the Sundance Film Festival, which drew a large crowd before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It started to decline again in 2025, and then there was a significant drop off this year during that same period of time,” Jones said. “What we don’t know is whether or not a big part of that drop off is just the fact that we didn’t have snow so we didn’t have as many skiers in the marketplace during that same period of time.”
Placer.ai can also analyze where trips originated, which helps the county track how many local residents are shopping at major establishments, like the Smith’s in Kimball Junction or Kamas Food Town. As a brief example, Jones showed the County Council data indicating that 63.5% of customers to the Smith’s are Summit County residents compared to Kamas Food Town’s 72.7% and the Macey’s in Pinebrook’s 78.6%.
“Having that market in that neighborhood with that density around it, the majority of their customers are coming directly from that neighborhood,” Jones said.
The County Council generally seemed impressed with the flexibility of the artificial intelligence tool, with County Councilor Megan McKenna saying she thought it would help the county make better decisions.
“The more resources we have, the more data-driven decisions we can make,” McKenna said. “I see this as a really valuable tool in helping us make decisions going forward. I think there’s a lot of value just thinking about traffic and planning in general.”
McKenna also said she wanted to partner with municipalities in the county to share data, saying she thought it could help local city councils address their own economic concerns.
“I could see a lot of value in our special service districts, too, any time there’s a project coming up,” she added. “I’m thinking about Basin Rec if they want to go through Truth in Taxation and want to see who’s really using their facilities, where they’re coming from.”
County Council Chair Canice Harte suggested meeting with County Manager Shayne Scott to discuss the type of data councilors want to analyze in the next few months. The County Council did not take any action related to Placer.ai, which is already being used by multiple county departments.
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