Opportunity
As Wyoming’s official tourism organization, Travel Wyoming is responsible for inspiring and converting travelers across every season — including the slow ones, when sessions tend to be shorter and browsing behavior less intentional.
Instead of optimizing around that reality, Travel Wyoming made a deliberate bet: Use AI-powered trip planning to deepen engagement with travelers actively considering a Wyoming adventure — and turn a slow season into an opportunity to rethink destination engagement.
The goal was to move beyond static inspiration and create interactive pathways that helped travelers explore experiences tailored to their interests.
Key focus areas included:
- Increasing engagement during lower seasonal traffic periods
- Encouraging deeper interaction with destination content
- Moving travelers from passive browsing into active trip planning
- Improving campaign engagement and traveler action
Strategy
Rather than directing visitors to static landing pages, Travel Wyoming partnered with Mindtrip to embed interactive planning directly into seasonal campaigns and destination content. The initiative launched with the “Winter Adventure in Wyoming” campaign.
On the Winter Adventure page, travelers could tap into activity categories — snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, ice fishing, hot springs, ice climbing — and immediately receive personalized Wyoming itineraries.
Curated inspiration cards around experiences like Yellowstone in Winter, Exploring the Tetons, Family Winter Adventures and Winter Basecamps each connected directly to AI-powered trip planning. What started as a moment of interest could immediately become an active planning session.
The experience moved travelers through a natural arc: arrive curious, explore something specific, start building a real trip.
When the strategy expanded into "Mavericks Wanted" — Travel Wyoming's brand platform for independent, adventure-seeking travelers — Mindtrip continued as the planning backbone, helping those travelers explore ranches, lodging and experiences across the state.
Impact
Even during Wyoming's slower winter season, travelers interacting with Mindtrip engaged more deeply and showed significantly stronger planning intent:
- 1,636% increase in session duration
- 73% increase in event density
Travelers weren’t casually browsing — they were actively exploring experiences, building itineraries and spending meaningful time planning their trips. A visitor who arrived curious about ice fishing or a Yellowstone winter escape could immediately start shaping a real itinerary around those interests.
That shift in behavior — from passive browsing to active planning — carried through to Travel Wyoming's broader "Mavericks Wanted" campaign performance:
- 11% lift in campaign engagement
- 12% increase in conversions year over year
- 31% increase in guide orders year over year
"
We saw the expected seasonal drop in traffic, but the behavior of the remaining audience fundamentally shifted. Travelers weren’t just browsing anymore. They were actively planning.
Blake Dinkelman
Interactive Marketing Manager, Travel Wyoming
The Wyoming experience points to a clear lever for destination marketers: When travelers are guided into interactive planning instead of static browsing, engagement becomes more intentional — and meaningful traveler action follows.
For DMOs facing similar challenges — how to drive meaningful engagement when traffic naturally dips — Travel Wyoming’s approach offers a replicable model for turning seasonal interest into active trip planning.
Ready to Rethink Seasonal Engagement?
Let’s talk about what AI-powered trip planning could look like for your destination.
