Coordinated Effort Lengthens Visitor Stays
Published Dec 16, 2008
Dinosaurs that thundered across Wyoming tens of millions of years ago are long extinct, but five life-size replicas of the hulking creatures are on display at Western Wyoming Community College’s Natural History Museum in Rock Springs.
From local festivals to renowned performing arts organizations to internationally recognized historical sites, Wyoming’s cultural scene is as vibrant and varied as anyone could want.
“Our job is to drive awareness and interest in Wyoming, so 99 percent of our $13 million budget is spent out of state,” says Alan Dubberley, deputy director of Wyoming Travel & Tourism. “We do a completely integrated advertising and marketing campaign on a lot of different levels, which allows us to focus both domestically and internationally.”
The division went through a rebranding process in 2005, when the “Forever West” tagline was rolled out with all the state’s marketing collateral to positive results.
“The brand reminds us to concentrate on who and what we are, and it’s been very successful,” Dubberley says.
Once those visitors arrive, the effort doesn’t let up to keep them busy.
“We cover everything from the state parks, historical sites and trails on one end, but also have the office of the state archeologist, the Wyoming Arts Council, historic preservation office, state archives and the state museum,” says Gary Schoene, public information supervisor for the Wyoming State Parks & Cultural Services Department.
“We’re pretty diverse, but we’re able to run the gamut from preservation to recreation,” he says.
The parks department defers to state and local tourism efforts in terms of getting visitors to the state, and then it steps up with itinerary suggestions, Schoene says.
“Our job is to get them to our sites, whether it’s historic, a museum or an art gallery,” he says. “We market all different ways, making sure that we’re presenting not just the big attractions but also all the different things along the way to those destinations.
“We really work to help those secondary venues, because they don’t have a lot of marketing dollars. Our goal is to get that family who’s coming to Yellowstone to stay an extra day, and maybe go camping or visit a historic site.”
Those efforts bolster the work of the Wind River Visitors Council in Fremont County. Visitors come through the area to and from Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park and other major attractions, and often stop to see the Wind River Indian Reservation and other landmarks, says Paula McCormick, director of marketing.
“We attach ourselves to the parks, but we also market ourselves as a destination in and of itself,” McCormick says. “We have amazing opportunities for outdoor recreation, so if people are looking for a real back-country experience, they’ll stop here and stay.”
Another destination that benefits from regional and state marketing efforts is the Buffalo Bill Museum.
That venue is part of a complex in Cody that also features the Whitney Gallery of Western Art, Plains Indian Museum, Cody Firearms Museum, Draper Museum of Natural History and Harold McCracken Research Library.
Combined, the museums draw around 200,000 visitors a year from the United States and abroad, with no less a personality than author James A. Michener referring to them as “the Smithsonian of the West,” says Bruce Eldredge, executive director and chief executive officer.
“We’re the largest museum of the American West in the United States, and so we get visitors from all over,” Eldredge says. “We also get people from all over the world to do research here, as well as people who come just to study the individual collections. We’ve got big things here.”
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by J. Kyle Keener
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