Tourism is the second largest industry in Wyoming which means making sure the state keeps attracting visitors is vital to the economy.
The Wyoming Lodging and Restaurant Association has spent the year traveling around Wyoming to find out the state of the Wyoming tourism industry.
"What we found was really a mixed bag I would say," Lynn Birleffi said.
Executive Director Lynn Birleffi says they've talked too approximately 100 businesses this year. They wanted to find out why some of the businesses that rely on tourism are struggling.
"They're having to work harder to get the same amount of revenue, to get the same amount of revenue and the same amount of business. They're working more for less," Birleffi said.
Some areas of the state are doing better than others, but even in the same communities business success has varied.
"Even in one community some businesses are doing well and some aren't. So it's hard to generalize. But I would say up in the Big Horn Basin, Cody and Worland are definitely doing the best," Birleffi said.
Yellowstone is always the biggest draw for tourists to the state, but this year they got off to a very slow start.
"Wyoming Office of Tourism did some additional advertising in the fall as did the local communities around there, so they ended up doing just as well as last year because September and October were so strong," Birleffi said.
She says tourism in southeast Wyoming has been good, but unpredictable.
"One month will be really good and the next month might be less than they expect, but the main word you hear from businesses in this part of the state is hard to predict," Birleffi said.
Birleffi described the state of the industry as strong, but they need to continue promoting.
"It's just important to keep our name out there because we think everybody knows where Wyoming is and what there is to do but most people really don't," Birleffi said.
Even though tourism around the state has been very up and down during the course of the year. Birleffi says that their future expectations for the tourism industry are very optimistic.
