SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Bill LeSeur would ski every weekend if he could.

But as chairman of the Metropolitan New York Ski Council he knows skiers nationwide will be re-evaluating how often, and where, they’ll be making ski trips this year because of the rising cost of fuel.

“I do know it’s going to affect the local trips up to New England from New York. The fear of course is that you’re looking at a good extra $1,000 to heat a house,” LeSeur said.

An uncertain economy, increasingly expensive airline tickets and the cost of heating a home this winter are expected to cut the nation’s leisure tourism growth in 2006 in half, according to a Travel Industry Association of America forecast released this month.

But in Utah, tourism leaders are optimistic the legislature’s decision to increase tourism advertising by more than 1,000 percent combined with record snowfalls the past two years will be enough to convince skiers that coming to Utah is one trip that shouldn’t be canceled.

“Most people who ski realize the importance in wanting to take that trip every year,” said Hilary Reiter, Ski Utah’s director of communications.

Count LeSeur among them.

He plans to come to Utah no matter what.

The stakes of luring tourists like him to Utah are high as ski resorts open this month.

Fewer tourists come to Utah in winter than any other season, but it’s the most lucrative time of year. Skiers fuel the largest segment of the state’s nearly $5 billion tourism industry.

Skiers spend about 176 percent more per trip, excluding travel costs, than the average Utah tourist, according to the Utah Office of Tourism.

Keeping them coming is critical to the survival of many communities.

“It is our economy. … Surely as the auto industry is to Detroit, skiing is to Park City. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the ski product,” said Bill Malone, executive director of the Park City Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.

Tourism employs more than 110,000 Utahns and saves each household $462 in state and local taxes each year. But state leaders want a bigger share of the more than $550 billion tourists spend in the U.S.

The Park City chamber is one of the beneficiaries of $10 million in new state funding for out-of-state advertising that vaulted Utah from the bottom 10 of all state tourism budgets to the top 15.

It’s receiving $112,000 in matching funds to partner with the airport to expand television advertising in San Diego, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Utah’s top tourism feeder markets are in the western U.S., but it’s been losing its share of that market in recent years, said Leigh von Der Esch, director of the Utah Office of Tourism.

Now the state is fighting to regain that market and expand eastward and internationally, she said.

“Airline fuel on the price of a ticket is certainly a concern to us. But it works back and forth across the U.S. We’re getting the information out that maybe there’s savings in another area,” she said.

Domestic television advertisements are praising Salt Lake City International Airport for being within 60 miles of 11 ski resorts. Several resorts offer promotions where those who arrive at the airport and ski on the same day ski for free.

In Utah, nearly 80 percent of overnight skiers fly here, according to the Office of Tourism.

Like LeSeur, Malone believes drive-in destinations will suffer most from high fuel costs.

“People don’t take one ski trip a year. Take the East Coast consumer for us. They may go to Vermont or New Hampshire five times or six times and make one trip out West. I’m not sure whether they’re ready to give up that out west trip,” Malone said.

But some have considered it.

“As far as the airlines, we almost didn’t go (to Park City) this year because of the cost. One day it was $485, the next day it was $685,” said Gary Bucy, president of the Savannah, Ga., Ski Club.

Airline tickets are expected to increase 10 to 15 percent next year, said Terry Trippler, airline analyst for Cheapseats.com, during a conference call after the Travel Industry Association’s forecast was released.

For larger ski clubs, resorts are often willing to offer discounts they say help offset airfare.

One of the country’s largest ski clubs is the Tampa Bay Snow Skiers, with 2,500 members.

Ski resorts from all over the world come to Tampa, Fla., each September to sell discounted packages with the knowledge club members must fly wherever they go.

“Because we’re so big we’re able to get a really good deal,” said club president Toufic Moumne.

That often includes discounted lodging, lift tickets and meals, Moumne said.

Resorts also aren’t ignoring locals’ need for economic relief, said Laura Schaffer, director of public relations at Snowbird Ski Resort.

“We do all we can … to make it easy for them, whether it’s increasing bus trips up the canyons so people aren’t spending as much on gas or including bus fare with lift ticket prices,” Schaffer said.