The Wyoming Office of Tourism plays an important role in stimulating Wyoming’s economy with their efforts towards engaging the public with new advertising, videos, website layout and various articles about why Wyoming is the ultimate destination for a vacation.
The ‘That’s WY’ campaign, created and sponsored by the Wyoming Office of Tourism, has recently started up again as the summer months draw nearer.
“I grew up in Wyoming and I always loved how much space there is in Wyoming,” Matt Scarlett, a senior at UW who works in the Outdoor Program, said. “You could always ask people if they had a scenic butte on their property, ‘hey, is it okay to go into your backyard and check out that butte?’ and people would usually say yes.”
Scarlett has looked at some of the promos for the “That’s WY” campaign and many of them capitalize on the open spaces that Wyoming has to offer. Some of the other tactics used to reach out to various audiences include videos about unique experiences, highlighting the organizations in Wyoming, or “Hike Like a Woman,” an organization that hosts backpacking trips in Wyoming for women.
Dan McCoy, coordinator of the proposed natural resources recreation and tourism degree program, said that this organization was a good subject of focus for the campaign.
“The women backpacking video was a good one because it shows that there’s another side to Wyoming, a side that some people don’t normally see,” McCoy said.
Besides defying expectations about what people think they know about Wyoming, the Wyoming Office of Tourism has proven to be successful with the “That’s WY” campaign and marketing an authentic Wyoming experience to prospective tourists.
A report from 2017 illustrates the statistics of the tourism industry in Wyoming; 8.7 million visitors that came to Wyoming in 2017, 32,000 jobs in the tourism industry as of 2017 and 186 million dollars made in local and state tax revenues.
Tia Troy, the media and public relations manager for the Wyoming Office of Tourism, attributes part of this success to previous “That’s WY” campaigns, which focuses on the people of Wyoming telling their stories.
“It’s been effective for a few reasons,” Troy said. “We know that today, travelers are looking for authentic experiences and so with a destination like Wyoming, this is a place where travelers can come and really experience the heart and the soul of Wyoming.”
