Domenic Bravo, Executive Director of the Wyoming Office of Tourism, called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Wednesday, April 8 to discuss tourism impacts in Lincoln County. Bravo will be speaking in Lincoln County on April 22 to both the Star Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Fossil Basin Chamber of Commerce. RSVP to either event by emailing svidan@silverstar.com or by clicking here.

(0:02) This is the weekday wake up on the SVI Radio Network. (0:06) It is 8.36 this morning live on Swift 98 and The Spur heading into our first of three guest (0:12) interview segments for the day today and speaking with Dominic Bravo. (0:16) He was named in October of last year as the executive director of the Wyoming Office of (0:21) Tourism.

(0:22) He’s going to be coming to Lincoln County on Wednesday, April 22nd to speak to both (0:26) the Star Valley and Fossil Basin Chamber of Commerce’s in Star Valley and Kemmer. (0:31) Dominic, good morning. (0:32) How are you doing today? (0:33) Good morning.

(0:34) Glad to be here. (0:35) Absolutely. (0:36) Appreciate your time today.

(0:37) Well, let’s talk about the Wyoming Office of Tourism. (0:41) But before we do that, tell us about your background and what led up to you becoming (0:45) director as of October of last year. (0:48) Yeah, so I’ve been very fortunate.

(0:50) I actually originally started my career as a law enforcement park ranger in Nevada, but (0:54) I moved to Cheyenne and to Wyoming in 2008. (0:57) So I was actually the division director for state parks, state trails, all of our historic (1:04) sites. (1:05) And then during my tenure, we set up the outdoor rec office.

(1:08) So I spend a lot of time in Lincoln County. (1:10) Obviously, it’s a beautiful area and love it. (1:13) I did a brief stint over at the University of Wyoming as a professor and then was the (1:17) CEO for Visit Cheyenne, so the local destination management organization for about six years (1:23) when I put my name on the hat for this role, which I’m just excited to do.

(1:27) I mean, obviously, our state’s pretty easy to promote, but at the same time, we compete (1:31) with a lot of the Rocky Mountain region. (1:33) And just I’m excited to come to your folks in the neck of the woods and just talk all (1:38) things tourism. (1:39) Absolutely.

(1:39) Well, we know how important tourism is across the state, but especially over here in Lincoln (1:43) County, a corridor to Yellowstone and the Tetons. (1:48) And when you think about tourism, especially on the western side of the state, Yellowstone (1:52) and the Tetons come first to mind, but that’s not it. (1:54) And so what is the Wyoming Office of Tourism do to promote maybe places specifically like (2:00) Lincoln County itself? (2:02) I believe that’s the big piece for us, especially under my tenure that I’ve talked about it.

(2:06) I really want to make sure we move visitors around. (2:09) We’re actually working on a visitor management system so we can give love to maybe some of (2:14) the lesser known hidden gems that we have in our state. (2:17) Because as folks move through, as you mentioned, there’s so many things in Wyoming to do.

(2:23) I’ve been kind of coining this term that it’s like nowhere else on earth. (2:27) You get to see everything from unique rock outcroppings to you pretty much go through (2:32) every ecological zone and you can do that within a day. (2:35) And the same holds true for Lincoln County.

(2:38) Every single area you basically go from almost like desert, high desert region to foothills (2:46) to mountains fairly quickly just within your guys’ own county, which is pretty amazing. (2:52) And I really think trying to help destinations, we’ve been working with your folks’ group (2:57) on developing some strategic plans, some master plans to then just really decide what are (3:03) the best assets that make sense. (3:06) And I think the key is a smart growth that we always talk about, especially in the tourism (3:09) economy.

(3:10) We never ever want to have residents feel like their favorite fishing hole is being impacted (3:15) or they see so much volume that they don’t get to enjoy the place that they love to (3:19) live while at the same time we really want to maximize that visitor spending time, whether (3:24) it’s spending a night, dropping in for lunch, hitting a main street, keeping those retails (3:29) on main streets vibrant, whatever it takes to kind of maximize that is always the goal. (3:34) And I think that’s what Lincoln County is really primed for. (3:36) You guys are on that precipice of, as you mentioned, pulling some of that traffic on (3:40) their way to either Jackson or Grand Teton or Yellowstone and getting them to stop those (3:45) extra hours to spend their money in your community, leaving some sales tax behind and then heading (3:51) up to the park.

(3:53) You know, Dominic, when you come to Lincoln County and speak to the two chambers here, (3:58) let’s talk about maybe the trickle-down effect of tourism. (4:01) Why should, of course, we know what it does for restaurants and the gas stations and the (4:05) hotels, but what about the local mattress store, maybe the flower shop or the financial (4:10) institution? (4:11) How does tourism kind of spread those dollars across the entire local economy? (4:17) Interesting way the visitor economy works, as I just mentioned, you know, the visitor (4:20) economy is kind of the fertilizer for everything because depending on what county you’re in, (4:25) it’s anywhere between 10 to as high as 40% of the sales tax comes from a visitor. (4:31) And those sales tax dollars, obviously, are local taxes, you know, state taxes that really (4:36) actually save a resident from paying things for like firefighters, for, you know, road, (4:42) for infrastructure, for all those things.

(4:43) So having that visitor economy helps thrive. (4:45) And then on the flip side, especially in our state-like hours, you know, that favorite (4:49) restaurant that you go to on a main street, you know, mom-and-pop shop, or even that local (4:54) retail that you visit during Christmas to get specialized gifts for your family, probably (4:59) would not exist without the visitor also coming through because you just have to think (5:02) about it. (5:03) And although we have, you know, may have a decent population in a certain community, there’s (5:08) no way that that population, unless it visited that place every day, would be able to keep (5:13) that thing in place.

(5:14) It’s also a quality of life for our residents. (5:16) So with that balance done correctly, you get a high quality of life. (5:20) You save on the taxes that you would have to pay to be able to have the services you (5:25) enjoy.

And then just in general, a lot of even the events and things that go on in (5:30) communities is really built on that visitor coming to visit us. (5:33) I think that’s where you see it churn. (5:35) And then again, just those people’s dollars also have to use many other things.

(5:40) So, I mean, the mattress store may provide the mattresses for that hotel. (5:45) As a matter of fact, I was just traveling up and I got a flat tire. (5:47) I’m actually in Sheridan right now.

(5:49) I got a flat tire in Douglas. (5:50) It was a local tire shop that was able to fix my flat tire and get me back on the road. (5:55) But they do that for visitors as well.

(5:57) I actually saw that they had some visitors saying, hey, thanks for helping us. (6:01) Got us back on the road to I think they’re on their way to Sheridan in an RV. (6:05) But yeah, it turns over like threefold when you think about the visitor economy.

(6:10) Dominic Bravo, executive director of the Wyoming Office of Tourism, he’ll be in (6:13) Lincoln County on April 22nd, speaking to the Star Valley and Fossil Basin Chambers of (6:17) Commerce. And you can RSVP to SVIDan at Silverstar.com and you can find details at (6:23) Star Valley Chamber.com as well. (6:24) Dominic, appreciate your time and we look forward to seeing you in Lincoln County here (6:28) in a few weeks.

Looking forward, thanks for having me again. (6:31) You bet. That’s Dominic Bravo, executive director of the Wyoming Office of Tourism (6:34) here on the Weekday Wakeup.