Tourism revives from COVID lows while other issues emerge

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Tourism to Wyoming and its capital city, Cheyenne, has yet to revive from the harsh impacts of2020 pandemic. New record highs were set last year in some cases that exceeded even 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

As there might be storm clouds ahead, officials of the state forecast predict about smooth sailing for the No. 2 industry of Wyoming by revenue.

These were among messages from a news conference. Locally and state-wide, these officials informed that the Wyoming Tribune Eagle is optimistic about 2022.

“Overall visitation to Cheyenne in 2021 rebounded to levels that exceeded 2019’s visitation, with nearly 1.2 million overnight visitors to Cheyenne based on geolocation data provided by the Wyoming Office of Tourism.” That is from a news release by the Visit Cheyenne marketing organization.

Seeing visitors and their spending hit new highs in 2021, “2021 is our new bench (mark) for everything else we do,” said Visit Cheyenne CEO Domenic Bravo in an interview. For 2022, “we’re hopeful we’ll be another banner year.”

Both Bravo and Wyoming Office of Tourism’s Executive Director Diane Shober attributed the resiliency in tourism partially to there being so much to do outdoors. Travelling here was seen as safe even during some of the worst periods of the pandemic. Also, the officials pinpointed advertising, marketing and visitor tracking, plus an expansion of things to do locally – indoors and outside.

Also, employment opportunities increased in the sector.

As per officials and the state agency’s own release Monday, it’s still at around 30,000, a bit down from before the pandemic. “We are not yet fully back,” noted one person who watched the event, outdoor recreation expert Dan McCoy from the University of Wyoming.

He observed that Wyoming tourism has grown bit by bit over many years, and such growth will carry on. There have been wider fluctuations in prices of coal, oil and natural gas, which comprise much of the state’s energy industry, McCoy pointed out.

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