Wyoming tourism team kicks off Weston County strategic planning, explains lodging-tax rules and state funding

At a strategic-planning workshop in Weston County, representatives from the Wyoming Office of Tourism and consulting partners told the county’s lodging-tax board they must complete a strategic plan to be eligible for state destination development money and clarified how local lodging-tax revenue may be spent.

Amy Larson, destination and experience manager for the Wyoming Office of Tourism, said the state has set aside money for destination development and the strategic plan is the gateway to apply. “A couple of years ago when we switched over to the statewide lodging tax, we were able to secure about $5,000,000 of funding toward destination development programming,” Larson said, adding that the program now requires a local strategic plan before counties can apply.

The workshop combined how-to guidance on running a destination marketing and management organization (DMO) with a statutory overview of lodging-tax rules. Brooke Lee Young, a consultant with Young Strategies who led much of the session, told attendees the lodging-tax board’s core mission is to bring nonlocal visitors into the county and that spending should be evaluated against that principle. “The principle should be your use of the lodging tax: your lodging-tax expenditures to the side of bringing people from the outside into your county and get them to spend more money within the county,” Young said.

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