Visitor regret is driving Moab's boldest marketing push in recent memory. The Moab Office of Tourism has rolled out a new destination brand and accompanying ad campaign — dubbed "Should've Stayed Longer" — built around a striking data point: more than 90% of visitors to the Utah destination either planned to return or wished they had allotted more time during their trip.

The campaign, developed with creative content studio Camp4 Collective and travel-focused agency TOURIST, represents a complete repositioning effort that includes a new visual identity, a brand platform, and a full media buy spanning billboards, print, digital, connected TV, and social channels. A particularly visible placement: a full vehicle wrap on the free shuttle connecting downtown Moab to Arches National Park, one of the region's primary visitor entry points.

The Operator Angle

For lodging and foodservice operators in the Moab market, the campaign's commercial mechanics are the real story. The Moab Office of Tourism is partnering with local properties to offer incentives specifically tied to stays of three nights or more — a deliberate push to shift the destination's visitor profile from quick stopover to multi-day destination. Participating properties include Hoodoo Moab, SpringHill Suites by Marriott Moab, Wolfe's Hotel Moab, Red Cliffs Lodge Moab, and Apache Motel, with additional partners expected to join. Longer dwell times translate directly into higher food and beverage spend, more restaurant covers, and stronger ancillary revenue across the hospitality ecosystem — a dynamic that destination marketers increasingly use to align tourism campaigns with operator interests.

"People may come to Moab with Arches National Park at the top of their list, but once they're here, they realize how much more there is to experience," said Michael Soleta, Director of the Moab Office of Tourism. "Again and again, we hear the same thing from visitors: 'I should've stayed longer.' This campaign takes that realization and turns it into an invitation: give Moab the time it deserves."

Campaign Creative and Context

The campaign's ad copy leans into the destination's scale and geological drama to reframe visitor expectations. Headlines include "One arch down. 2,000 to go."; "This view took 5 million years. Take your time."; and "You came for two trails. Moab has 300 more with your name on them." The tone is unhurried — a deliberate counter-message to the bucket-list, check-it-off-the-list travel behavior that the destination research identified as a core friction point.

Moab draws an estimated 2.5 million visitors annually to a market that includes two national parks, two state parks, and more than 3 million acres of public lands. For a gateway town of roughly 5,200 residents, the hospitality economy is heavily dependent on visitor throughput — making average length of stay one of the most consequential levers operators can pull. That makes campaigns like this one of direct relevance to anyone managing restaurant or hotel revenue in tourism-driven markets.

The repositioning reflects a broader trend in destination marketing toward quality-over-quantity visitor strategies — an approach that aligns with sustainable tourism goals while also supporting the kind of repeat, high-engagement visitation that benefits local food and beverage operators most. Communities from Sedona to the Outer Banks have experimented with similar frameworks, though few have tied the creative concept as tightly to lodging-partner incentives as Moab's current rollout.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.