Since 1977 The Wyoming Lodging and Restaurant Association (WLRA) has proudly awarded The Big Wyo Award to a private sector individual/s who has done an outstanding job promoting and improving the tourism industry for the State of Wyoming. This exceptional award is presented at the Salute to the Industry Gala which follows the annual Governor’s Tourism & Hospitality Conference.

Nominee Criteria

The individual has made major contributions to generating visitors, servicing and developing the travel industry in the state of Wyoming.
These efforts can take place through their business or as a volunteer in travel-related organizations.
The person has been a member and served actively on civic, community or travel industry association groups.
There have been exceptions, but usually, the individual is not an elected official or travel industry public employee at the time of consideration. It is preferable that they not be currently serving on state boards and commissions.

2020 BIG WYO WINNER

Darren Rudloff

1970’s	1980’s	1990’s	2000’s	2010’s	2020’s
1977 Harry Smith	1980 Duane Von Krosigk	1990 Pat Self	2000 Trudy McCraken	2010 Gov. Dave Freudenthal	2020 Darren Rudloff
1978 Marv Harshman	1981 Peter Hassrick	1991 Paul Smith	2001 Gene & Carol Kupke	2011 Steve Meadows	2021 No Recipient (Conference Cancelled-Coronavirus)
1979 Bob Dohse	1982 Ralph McMullen	1992 Pat Sweeney	2002 Ted Blair	2012 Rex Brown
	1983 Norm Parker	1993 Jim Hearne	2003 Jeff Heilbrun	2013 Chuck Coon
	1984 Dorris Stalker	1994 Carol Waller	2004 Edna Kennell	2014 Kari Cooper
	1985 Bill Bragg	1995 Clay James	2005 Manuel Lopez	2015 Clay Miller
	1986 Gov. Ed Hershler	1996 Don & Doris Bunn	2006 Claudia Wade	2016 Jerry Blann
	1987 Clarene&Creed Law	1997 Wayne Worthen	2007 Dave Rader	2017 John Johnson
	1988 John Olson	1998 Gene Bryan	2008 Chuck Box	2018 Doug & Kathleen Campbell
	1989 Quin Blair	1999 Bill Sniffin	2009 Jim McCaleb	2019 Rick Hoeninghausen