During the course of my business career, our companies have published and distributed over four million magazines promoting tourism in the Cowboy State.
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During the course of my business career, our companies have published and distributed over four million magazines promoting tourism in the Cowboy State.
My first magazine was started in 1970 called Big Mountain Country that sang the praises for my Fremont County, home of the biggest mountains in the state.
Flash ahead 50 years, and I am attending the annual Wyoming Governor’s Tourism Conference in Cheyenne. Hundreds of members of the 31,000-plus people who work in the hospitality industry were there.
Over the years the tourism industry has faced many threats, the Yellowstone fires of 1988, come to mind. This year the Coronavirus will cut into Asian tourism. Up to now the threats to the state’s second largest industry have come from outside sources.
In a crazy twist, the biggest danger to the industry this year has been coming from within – from some members of the Legislature. Because of tight money concerns, some outspoken elected folks think we are spending too much money promoting the state.
Actually, we are lagging behind our neighbors. And we have a lot to lose by such crazy thinking.
A small amount of money spent with the state tourism department generates much more money – it is as simple as that. The more people we get here the more money they spend. That outside money circulates around our communities. It is a win-win.
One legislator even suggested getting rid of the state’s WOT (Wyoming Office of Tourism) and actually heard a few shouts of encouragement in the State Senate. You can’t make this stuff up.
A few decades ago Colorado got rid of its tourism department, which was a disaster. It took years for them to get it restored and then even more years for their hospitality industry to recover. They never tried it again.