LAYTON — Twenty-five print and electronic travel journalists from media outlets representing millions of people around the world are in Davis County this weekend.

The Davis Area Convention & Visitors Bureau is hosting a SuperFam (familiarization) tour along with the Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express in Layton.

Among the visitors are travel writers and photographers from The Daily Telegraph, the UK’s largest circulation “quality” daily, as well as The Daily Mail, which circulates an average of two million copies a day.

That’s not to mention several writers from major regional French newspapers, a large French trade travel magazine, as well as writers from Quebec, Germany and Japan.

In addition, a representative of Virgin Holidays, the UK’s largest tour importers, is on the tour.

“This is an incredible opportunity,” said CVB Director of Sales & Marketing Kathi Dysert. “We may not see return on the visit this year, but we couldn’t afford to pay for this” with any amount of advertising, she added.

The tour is part of a visit arranged by the Utah Office of Tourism. The visitors were due to arrive in Layton Saturday afternoon, have dinner at Rooster’s Restaurant, here, and then leave for a half-day on the island early Sunday morning.

At Fielding Garr Ranch, the journalists were to ride on horseback, visit the museum and visitor center, see Buffalo Point, and end their island visit at the Buffalo Island Grill for lunch.

Then it is on to Moab and many other “typical” tourism spots in the state, such as Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell, and finishing next weekend by seeing tourist spots in Salt Lake City.

“Antelope Island is so unique, it almost seems in another world. It’s such a big, vast attraction,” including such elements as the bison that represent the American West to so many international visitors, Dysert said.

“To us, it’s a little piece of heaven. But so often people don’t realize what they have in their own backyard,” she said.

Antelope Island State Park is the state’s second most visited of the 43 parks, drawing more than 203,000 visitors by the end of August, a gain of 9,000 visitors over a year ago.

More international fam tours are coming to Davis County this month. Next weekend, a German trade fam is scheduled, and is the first time such a group has requested to stay on the island, Dysert said.

Other’s are due to come later, including a German media writer and photographer who specialize in unique sunsets.

The CVB partners with hotels, such as the two hosting guests this trip, as well as restaurants, such as Roosters, who provide special rates.

For more information about the CVB, visit www.davisareacvb.com.

tbusselberg@davisclipper.com