Outdoor Recreation & Tourism Management

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

Two students smiling at each other while kayaking

Turn Your Passion for the Outdoors into a Career in Recreation & Tourism

You can't imagine staring at a plastic screen your entire career. In fact, you dream of a job where you can blaze trails outdoors and share your spirit of adventure with others.

The world needs more people who don't want to be fenced in and want to show the rest of us what busting out looks like. Get ready to up rope and seek your future as an outdoor recreation and tourism management major.

What is outdoor recreation and tourism management?

The University of Wyoming's outdoor recreation and tourism management degree program is an interdisciplinary major that combines the study of business, recreation, culture, the environment, natural resources and tourism to prepare you for the fast-growing outdoor recreation and tourism sector.

Yes, you'll log time in class learning from professors and outdoor industry experts, but you'll also get to stretch your mind and legs in the great outdoors- studying the vast living laboratory that is the Cowboy State and potentially locations around the world.

Through in-depth coursework and hiking-boots-on-the-ground experiences, you will be prepared for leadership roles at ski areas, with outdoor adventure programs, outdoor and interpretive educational settings and hospitality and tourism enterprises.

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To further customize your degree, outdoor recreation and tourism management majors get to choose from five curated concentrations:

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These are just a few of the courses you might take as an outdoor recreation and tourism management major at UW:

  • Foundations of Recreation and Tourism
  • Tourism Theory and Practice
  • Program Planning, Design and Discovery
  • Forest Management
A class of students in the snow

 

What Can You Do With an Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Management Bachelor's Degree?

The outdoor recreation and tourism management program at the University of Wyoming allows you to listen to that inner voice goading you to spend a gap year on the river and make a career of it. The state of Wyoming is an outdoor recreation and tourism mecca that generates billions of dollars in revenue every year. This growing industry is hungry for bold leaders and creative thinkers who can manage that growth wisely while also opening the state's doors to newcomers eager to experience the arching plains and soaring mountains in our state.

Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Management Careers

The University of Wyoming outdoor recreation and tourism management degree program has been designed to lead to careers in the following areas:

  • Guest and hospitality services
  • Tourism management
  • Outdoor recreation enterprise
  • Environmental education
  • Outfitting and guiding services
  • Outdoor adventure enterprise
  • Resort or ranch management
  • Recreation planning for governments
  • Tour operation
  • Museum Management
  • Interpretation

 

 

A UW alum posing for a picture outside of her work

Here are just a few place where University of Wyoming outdoor recreation and tourism management alumni have made a difference:

  • Wyoming Game and Fish Department
  • Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
  • Jackson Hole Mountain Resort
  • Three Rivers Forest Management
  • Devil's Thumb Ranch Resort & Spa

 

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Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Management Bachelor's Degree Program Highlights

Our outdoor recreation and tourism management program is an interdisciplinary degree program that will expose you to best practices in tourism and outdoor recreation and ways to harness your adventurous spirit entrepreneurially, as well as help you acquire a deep understanding of what it means to care for our environment and honor our diverse cultural legacies. Here are just a couple of things that set UW's outdoor recreation and tourism management program a part from the rest!

Internships

Take part in a required 400-hour professional internship, gaining resume-building experience. Possible internship opportunities include employers such as Wyoming State Parks, members of the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association, Jackson Lake Lodge, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Wilderness Adventures, National Outdoor Leadership School, Buffalo Bill Center of the West and others.

Professional Semester

Spend one entire semester in cohort-based outdoor recreation and tourism management classes and complete a real-world, team capstone project such as a marketing plan or business assessment for an outdoor-related business, a tourism initiative for a small town or a business plan for a start-up.

 


Contact Us

We're Eager to Help!

Haub School of ENR

University of Wyoming

Bim Kendall House

804 E Fremont St

Laramie, WY 82072

Phone: (307) 766-5080

Email: haub.school@uwyo.edu