How Visit Laramie turns lodging tax into countywide tourism growth
Visit Laramie’s lodging tax brought in $1.53 million in fiscal 2025, and the board uses it to market Albany County, fund grants, and widen visitor spending.
In fiscal year 2025, the Albany County Tourism Board brought in a record $1,528,276 in lodging tax revenue as Albany County heads toward a November 2026 renewal of the tax that funds Visit Laramie’s countywide marketing. The board is using the money for year-round promotion, visitor services, and local economic activity.
Where the lodging tax goes
Visit Laramie is the destination marketing organization for Albany County. Its job is to create sustainable economic growth through tourism. That means the board is not just selling Laramie as a place to stop for a night. It represents Laramie, Centennial, Rock River, Bosler, Woods Landing, Jelm, WyColo, and other county communities, with an economic-development goal that reaches from downtown businesses to the Snowy Range and Vedauwoo.
The funding mechanism is a 4 percent local lodging tax option. That money supports national advertising and year-round destination marketing, the kind of spending designed to keep Albany County visible to travelers before they arrive and while they are here.
How the board is governed
The Albany County Tourism Board is organized as a Joint Powers board, with seven volunteer members serving two-year terms. Four seats are selected by the Laramie City Council and three by the Albany County Commissioners, so the two biggest public bodies in the county share control over who steers the tourism program.
The board employs four full-time employees, meets on the third Monday of every month at 800 S 3rd Street, and operates the Laramie Area Visitor Center from the same address. The visitor center is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., while the brochure atrium is open 24/7.
What the money buys
The scale of the tourism economy is larger than one revenue line. Visit Laramie says travel spending generated $13.0 million in tax revenue across Albany County, with $5.2 million staying local, and supported 1,700 jobs. The board also says that without travel-generated taxes, each Albany County household would need to pay $759 more for existing government services.
In practical terms, that means hotel jobs, restaurant shifts, fuel sales, event staffing, and the small businesses that benefit when someone stays an extra night instead of driving through.
How Visit Laramie tries to spread spending
Connecting travelers with county businesses is key to building a memorable visitor experience and spreading the impact of the visitor dollar throughout the community. The board also offers free marketing listings for local businesses that draw outside-county visitation, a direct way to help small operators get in front of people who are already traveling here.
Visit Laramie offers meeting services, event registration support, welcome bags, hotel connections, and planning assistance for conferences and events. Put together, those tools are meant to turn a one-day stop into a longer stay, which is the difference between a drive-through visit and spending that lands in Albany County hotels, restaurants, and shops.
A few of the services that make that happen include:
- free marketing listings for qualifying local businesses
- hotel connections for conference and event planners
- event registration support and planning assistance
- welcome bags that help visitors find their way around town
- year-round destination marketing tied to countywide visitation
How grants are supposed to create overnight stays
Visit Laramie’s marketing grant program is built for community organizations whose events increase overnight visitation. Qualifying projects must drive additional attendance and overnight stays through increased marketing awareness, and at least 50 percent of awarded marketing funds must be spent on outside-county event marketing and advertising.
A grant is not simply for putting on an event; it has to bring in more people and persuade enough of them to stay overnight to benefit local lodging, food service, and retail spending.
Leadership and local footprint
Visit Laramie named Andi Jaspersen executive director on September 27, 2024, after Scott Larson stepped down on July 3, 2024, following five years with the county tourism board. Jaspersen previously worked on Visit Cheyenne’s marketing team and held a Certified Destination Management Executive accreditation from Destinations International, giving the office a leader with both marketing and destination-management experience.
The board has also invested in its physical presence. Visit Laramie reopened the Laramie Area Visitor Center in 2022 after a renovation, and in 2023 it highlighted a partnership with Common Outdoor Ground to reopen the Centennial Visitor Center for the summer.
Why the policy timeline matters
Wyoming’s 2019 lodging-tax legislation revised the local optional lodging tax and created the Wyoming tourism account, while a 2020 legislative bill summary clarified which activities qualify as the promotion of travel and tourism. Those changes set the legal framework for Albany County’s local program and define the economic purpose its spending must serve.
Albany County’s tourism board is asking residents and businesses to keep backing a system that takes a 4 percent lodging tax and turns it into marketing, grants, visitor services, and public revenue.
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