Wyoming Ripe For the Dark Side Of Tourism Success — Suddenly Viral Over-Tourism

Just 11% of Americans are aware of Wyoming as a tourism destination, according to statistics from Wyoming Office of Tourism, a figure suggesting there’s lots of room for tourism across the Cowboy State to grow.

Improving that awareness has long been a focal point for the state agency, which has spent tens of thousands of dollars toward advertising for that aim.

But there can be a dark side to that success, one that has already come out at some of Wyoming’s most special places.

“When Ten Sleep erupted, I was on a call with the Forest Service, and I was moderating all the interested groups,” Wyoming Pathways Executive Director Michael Kusiek told Cowboy State Daily. “And that included landowners up there who were saying, ‘People are just parking in our driveway, they’re parking on our private land, and they’re leaving their garbage, leaving their human waste.’”

The surge in popularity of Ten Sleep as a new discovery for rock climbers was an early taste of what happens when a resource gains sudden popularity, before those managing a resource are even aware it’s become an “it” thing online.

Books were being written at the time about climbing in Ten Sleep Canyon long before anyone realized just how popular the site was becoming. And the fan clubs online had lots of people who weren’t worried about a lack of amenities at the sites. They would just build their own if what they wanted wasn’t there.

“That’s the dark side of all this,” Kusiek acknowledged. “When people sort of say, ‘Yeah, I’m going and doing what I want. It doesn’t matter what I’m supposed to do, or what someone says.’ I mean that’s a human trait among some that, ‘Hey man, it’s all about me.’”

Tourism Anger Everywhere

These days, people angry with tourists seem to be everywhere, all around the world.

In Barcelona, tourism activists are protesting viral overtourism by shooting at tourists with water guns.

In Japan, residents of a small town tried blocking a viral view of Mount Fuji with dark curtains to discourage a stream of thousands of tourists who had discovered their town. The tourists were leaving trash in their wake, damaging property, and snarling up traffic by crossing the street without looking both ways.

So far, Wyoming hasn’t experienced any viral onslaughts with that kind of intensity.

But it absolutely could happen, Deputy Director of Wyoming State Parks Chris Floyd told Cowboy State Daily, and it’s something he and other state parks officials are already thinking about.

“Remember a couple of years ago when that person put up that metal monument or obelisk in the middle of the Utah desert?” Floyd asked Cowboy State Daily. “All of a sudden that remote area was just flooded with people.”

Later another mysterious obelisk appeared in northern Colorado. Curious onlookers had to jump a barbed wire fence and hike a steep hill while dodging sharp, spiky cacti to get to the obelisk.

None of that deterred the throngs of visitors determined to go take selfies with it.

“Our public lands, while they do have a capacity, there’s a limit to that in some areas, particularly if there are sensitive natural or cultural resources,” Floyd said. “We have to be aware of that possibility. What we’ve found is that people, if they don’t have what they need, they’ll find a way to do it themselves. So, it’s best to be proactive.”

Bring On The Amenities

Being proactive is exactly what Kusiek believes would help forestall instances of viral, over-tourism, the kind that can turn residents off and make them perpetually angry enough at tourists to get out the water guns.

One way to do that, he suggested, is to build out more amenities across the state. That would create both flexibility and capacity, so there are plenty of other places for any future overflow to get sent to.

“Over 40 communities in Wyoming wrote to us who want amenities like we build,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “We had $42 million in requests, and that was just to state parks for trails across the state.”

Now that the state has the Outdoor Tourism Recreation Fund, Kusiek believes it could be a valuable tool to help reduce the concentration of tourism in any one given area.

“Wyoming’s not going to get less busy,” he said.

Particularly not with thousands of advertising dollars being spent to promote the state as a great tourism destination.

“You know, as people want to have these experiences, whether it’s from an influencer or just wanting to get out in nature, they’re going to need more places to go,” he said. “If the places they want to go are too crowded, they’re going to go somewhere else and make their own.

“That’s what I think we’ve got as a challenge for the future of Wyoming.”

Gowdy, Glendo Show Potential And Peril

There’s a huge upside to building out more amenities across the state, Kusiek said, and Wyoming State Parks already has a couple of success stories which show that.

Those parks are Glendo State Park and Curt Gowdy State Park.

Both parks saw a huge boost in visitation — upwards of a 60% increase in visitor stats — after trails were added.

“Before Curt Gowdy had trails, I think they were averaging something like 60 to 70,000 visitors a year,” Kusiek said. “Between the trails and COVID, now they’ve got like 550,000.”

Glendo, meanwhile, sometimes becomes the state’s fourth largest community on weekends, thanks in large part to trails that have been added there, which have proven highly popular, particularly for northern Colorado visitors.

State parks officials confirmed the figures Kusiek shared and agree that the addition of trails to those parks was a big part of the rise in visitation.

The success, however, also foreshadows some of the power of viral tourism.

“That’s like the viral nature of it, right?” Kusiek said. “Like word spreads in Colorado that you can get out of the craziness there by driving a few hours north.”

Then, boom, visitation stats increase exponentially.

Keeping Teton County Happy With Tourists

Overtourism is a topic that is often discussed in Teton County already, Teton County Commission Chairman Luther Propst told Cowboy State Daily.

“Our goal here in Jackson is to make sure that our attitude toward tourism never gets as divisive as it is in Barcelona or Mount Fuji,” he said. “That we sit down before it becomes that much of a flashpoint, to make sure tourism is serving the community.”

Teton County Commissioners appoint members to the Travel and Tourism Board to wrestle with the issues tourism presents to Jackson Hole, Propst added.

“They spend a tremendous amount of time both understanding and minimizing the impact so that it doesn’t disrupt the community or the industry,” he said. “It’s a big topic here.”

Surveys of Jackson and Teton County residents have already highlighted that residents were tired of tourists, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was a huge surge in visitors.

That prompted development of a sustainable destination management plan, to look at ways to mitigate negative effects of tourism on the area.

Cowboy State Daily reached out to the Travel and Tourism Board to discuss that plan, but they declined to be interviewed.

Propst said he believes that proactive steps like the sustainable destination management are already helping to ease tensions from overtourism.

“We had a level that exceeded our ability to accommodate visitors, and that left a bad taste in some people’s mouth,” Propst said. “But I’ve asked several in the tourism industry about business, and the answer I often get is that business is good. It’s a little bit off, and that is fine with me.

“Too much is too much. You can’t keep staff if their hair is on fire all the time from too much to do. So, everyone is happy with things being a little slower.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.