Fifteen-year-old digital masters, back-packing senior citizens, and travelers from Asia and other far away places could be in Wyoming's future.

But the state's tourism industry must change the way it markets itself to the rest of the world to bring these tourists, who are ready to "cowboy up," to Wyoming.

Watts Wacker, a futurist, spoke to a group of hotel workers, restaurant owners and others Monday about trends in tourism and how they relate to Wyoming.

During the keynote speech of the Wyoming Governor's Hospitality & Tourism Conference at the Parkway Plaza Hotel, Watts told participants his job was to get them to think.

A 15-year-old is a "digital native" who grew up entirely in the digital age, Watts said. These 15-year-olds will be traveling a lot in 15 years or less, Watts said.

Video games have become a spectator sport in Korea and facebook.com, an Internet social network, could be considered the 11th largest country because it has so many members.

"Those 40 and less spent a good portion of their lives in the digital age," Watts said.

The way younger generations access information was the most significant point of the presentation for Val Burgess, of Burgess Design Group that does marketing for Sheridan Travel & Tourism.

"My niece who is 2 is already on the computer," Burgess realized after the presentation. "My 7-year-old niece knows how to use a cell phone."

Penny Becker, executive director of Sheridan Travel & Tourism, said she and Burgess have already begun to discuss different marketing strategies.

"The thing that hit me the most was the importance of shooting high and thinking big," Becker said. "If you have to back away, you can."

This doesn't mean the tourism industry in Wyoming should forget about marketing toward seniors.

People are living longer, Watts said.

"Sixty is indeed the new middle age," Wacker said. "People who think they can't do a pack trip at 70, that will start going away."

In the near future, people from China will start visiting the West and Wyoming in droves, Wacker said.

He said more people in China are entering the middle class and learning to speak English. They want to see the effect the Chinese had on the development of the West during the 1800s.

Plus, the state of the American dollar is at a point where "America is on sale," said Diane Shober, director of Wyoming Travel & Tourism.

Shober said international visitors are increasing and there is a great deal of interest in Wyoming.

"They are looking for off-the-beat places to go," Shober said.

Wacker said Wyoming tourism businesses can bring people to the state by building upon the idea of the cowboy and the West and keep people coming back through service.

Even though he said service goes down when unemployment goes down like Wyoming has experienced, there are some things businesses can do to keep their customer service high.

One is fix mistakes when they happen and the other is pay attention to detail, Watts said.

If Wyoming tourism businesses needed help with details, they could stroll around booths at the trade show at the hotel. Vendors offered ideas about pillowcases, coffee and even soaps for the shower.

Becker said people don't understand the magnitude of the state and the peacefulness one can feel in Wyoming and that is what how she tries to market Sheridan.

"You never would have that experience until you come to Wyoming," Becker said.

Contact reporter Allison Rupp at (307) 266-0534 or allison.rupp@trib.com.