UW Program Aims to Boost Tourism

A University of Wyoming program that has helped find solutions to natural resource challenges is being retooled to work with Wyoming communities in an effort to boost the state’s tourism economy.

Using a $50,000 grant from the university’s new Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, UW’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources is developing plans to focus its Collaborative Solutions Program on helping communities grow their recreation economies while stewarding their environmental resources.

Wyoming’s tourism industry is the state’s second-largest economic sector, generating $3.57 billion in economic activity in 2017 and growing at an annual rate of 3.4 percent since 2007. The state’s ENDOW initiative has targeted the tourism and outdoor recreation sectors in its plans to grow and diversify the state’s economy, aiming to employ an additional 10,000 workers and boost the annual economic impact to $8 billion by 2038.