Wyoming Tourism Cuts Ribbon on Southeast Welcome Center - KGWN –Cheyenne, WY– Scottsbluff, NE News,Weather, Sports

Wyoming Tourism Cuts Ribbon on Southeast Welcome Center

A big investment into Wyoming's second largest industry was officially unveiled Friday afternoon.

When visitors enter the Cowboy State northbound on Interstate 25, one of the first things they now see is the new welcome center.

The $16.5 million investment is already being met with rave reviews.

"We've got visitors from all over the country that are saying wonderful things about it so far, so we're really excited about the initial reaction," said Alan Dubberley, Deputy Director of Wyoming Tourism.

This passage into Wyoming is used by three times more visitors than any other. Making it a priority to upgrade the welcome center.

"We talked to some people that we know that are extremely well versed in visitors centers across the country and got their recommendations on which ones to look at. There's none like this and the comments from the visitors we're getting say exactly that," Dubberley said.

The history and the outdoors of Wyoming are two of the main aspects that draw people to the state and the new welcome center has made it a point to highlight those two aspects for it's visitors.

"The goal was to give them a taste of Wyoming. The goal was to say here's all the different things you can see and do," Dubberley said.

This 27,000 square foot, state of the art building not only serves as a welcome center but also as the new home of the Wyoming Office of Tourism.

New energy is being used to supply more than 50 percent of the power to the building.

"There's energy being used and we're trying to do our best to offset that," Dubberley said.

Governor Matt Mead and former Governor Dave Freudenthal were integral in this project being built and neither could be more proud of the result.

"We're rightfully proud of this state and we want the first impression to be a great one and this building absolutely does that," Mead said.

"We needed an entrance to the state that spoke not only about our people, but about how beautiful it is and this is it. This will be here for decades and it will welcome millions of people," Freudenthal said.