Ryan Hauck

A Wyoming native with extensive experience promoting the West has been named as the next executive director of the Park County Travel Council.

The council announced Monday afternoon that it’s selected Ryan Hauck of Murray, Utah, to replace retiring director Claudia Wade.

Beyond Utah, Hauck has lived in Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico — and he previously worked as a director for Visit Casper, helping promote the central Wyoming city and surrounding area to travelers.

“My family and I are excited to be back in Wyoming,” Hauck said in a release. “We are looking forward to raising our family in Cody.”

Park County Travel Council leaders said Hauck is already familiar with the local tourism industry and the role it plays in the county’s economy.

Hauck most recently served as the director of sales for Western Leisure. The Salt Lake City firm works behind the scenes to design customized tours of the West for other operators — specializing in unique tours of Yellowstone and other national parks. Hauck has described his role as selling the Western United States and Canadian Rockies as a travel destination to tour operators across North America. He will now become even more heavily focused on Yellowstone as he markets Park County to tourists across the country and globe. 

Having received advanced notice of Wade’s retirement, the travel council began soliciting resumes early this year. The council wound up fielding nearly 70 applications and made the first round of cuts in early March. In-person interviews followed last month.

“We invited four candidates to Cody in late April knowing that any one of the four would be able to step into this position,” said Park County Travel Council member John Parsons, who led the search for a new executive director. Following those interviews, Hauck was offered the job and “we are eager to have Ryan [Hauck] lead the PCTC team,” Parsons said.

Hauck will have sizable shoes to fill in replacing Wade, who’s served in the post for more than three decades. However, he won’t be going it alone: the travel council is also staffed by an administrative assistant, Amanda Keyes, and Hauck will train with Wade for a month before she retires.

Hauck will technically be an employee of the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce, but he answers to the travel council — a 10-person board appointed by the Park County Commission and the Powell, Cody and Meeteetse councils. All of the Park County Travel Council’s marketing efforts are funded by a 4% tax assessed on lodging within the county.

Hauck will assume his new role in Cody in June.