Outdoor recreation study highlights economic challenges for Wyoming businesses

Atmosphere Mountainworks designs, cuts and sews backpacks and other outdoor gear in Laramie. Visitors headed to the national parks occasionally stop in to buy packs, but it’s not enough volume to sustain the business.

“That does happen,” owner Lindsay Olson said, but added “you don’t need a backpack all the time, you don’t need to repurchase those items.”

Despite rising labor costs and other challenges facing the small Laramie-based company, the constant influx of new people that comes with having a university in town makes a difference, she said.

“I’m grateful that we have that level of tourism because it’s a little bit harder to bank on getting people off the interstate, you know, that are visiting Yellowstone,” said Olson, who has owned Atmosphere Mountainworks since 2018 when she took it over from the previous owner.

Over 100 outdoor business owners like Olson were surveyed across 18 counties in the new Outdoor Business Needs Assessment and Opportunities 2026 report. In the report, the first comprehensive study of Wyoming’s outdoor recreation economy, researchers looked at data from across the state and identified challenges facing businesses.

A paddler plies the waters of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park on June 11, 2026. (Angus M. Thuermer Jr./WyoFile)

The study shows a significant outdoor recreation economy. The university’s Jay Kemmer Wyoming Outdoor Recreation Tourism and Hospitality (WORTH) Institute funded the study. Founded Outdoors, a program that supports entrepreneurs in the outdoor sector, performed the survey.

Before this, there was little data on how Wyoming’s outdoor recreation industry was doing, or what challenges these businesses faced. The study found that many in the outdoor industry are unaware of resources designed to support their businesses and their work.

“Sometimes I think about moving the business to Utah or Colorado where there are more outdoor companies, more industry infrastructure and potentially support,” wrote one business owner who responded to the survey. “Wyoming has a good tax structure, but I’m not seeing enough practical support for businesses like mine.”

Outdoor recreation accounts for 5.5% of the total wages and salary of Wyoming’s GDP, said Dan McCoy, director of the WORTH Institute. Currently, this sector employs 16,545 people, or about 2.8% of all Wyoming residents.

Researchers also found that 73% of firms surveyed have been around for 10 or more years, which can indicate the existence of barriers to new business owners.

Among Wyoming’s well-established outdoor businesses, North Fork Anglers has been around since 1984. Blair Van Antwerp, who owns the Cody fly shop and guide service, has experienced hiring and permitting challenges that are cropping up around Wyoming.

“As long as, you know, certain things in the Mountain West kind of stay the way they are with public land and access and everything, you know there’s always going to be a desire for people who want to go further into the backcountry and utilize the public land as much as they can.”
Anthony Natale

307 Llama Company is a newer business, having started four years ago when Anthony Natale and his then-partner got tired of carrying their gear for backcountry excursions. Neither of them rode horses, and they wanted something easier to care for, so they tried llamas.

Though 307 Llama Company hasn’t experienced many challenges, Natale said his business depends on maintaining access to public lands.

Based in Encampment, the company rents trained pack llamas for everything from hunting trips to multiday treks to family backpacking trips.

“As long as, you know, certain things in the Mountain West kind of stay the way they are with public land and access and everything,” Natale said, “there’s always going to be a desire for people who want to go further into the backcountry and utilize the public land as much as they can.”

Solutions

In addition to identifying challenges, the study also focused on finding solutions and resources to help outdoor recreation businesses. These solutions focused on larger changes to be made to support workforce hiring; seasonality, weather and climate; marketing; permitting and regulations; insurance and risk management; burnout; market uncertainty and financing.

The report highlights resources like the Wyoming Small Business Development Center.

“There’s a lot of groups that could potentially really benefit from understanding the challenges that these [businesses] face,” McCoy, of the WORTH Institute, said. “So our plan is to share this with those organizations and make sure that they’re aware of the challenges that these businesses face.”

Then, he said, those organizations could come up with ways to provide support for those businesses.

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