Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Tourism Growth Rises 2.8%

The Arkansas tourism industry grew by 2.8 percent last year, according to a report by the State Parks and Tourism Department.

Tourism continues to be a major part of the Arkansas ecomony. Travel expenditures last year were $3.15 billion, up from $3.07 billion the previous year. Twenty years ago the Arkansas tourism industry generated about one billion dollars.

Last year the travel industry employed 46,774 people in Arkansas and paid them more than $542 million in salaries. For comparison, the tourism industry employed 44,822 people 20 years ago, and their payroll totaled about $204.

The department measures travel by person-trip, which is defined as one person traveling 100 miles, one way, or spending one night away from home. The volume of travel in Arkansas was more than $18 million "person trips," up from 13 million person-trips 20 years ago.

The average expenditure per person-trip was $174.54 last year, up from $77.48 in 1977.

The department's definition of person-trip does not include school trips by students, travel by crews working on trains, planes and buses, journeys by military personnel on active duty or commuting to and from work.

The department operates 13 tourist information centers, where one of every 50 visitors is asked to fill out a survey. Last year more than 9,600 people completed the surveys, and the department learned that Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri were the top three states of orgin of out-of-state visitors. The average age of people stoping at tourist information centers was 45 years. The average family income was $44,940.

Summer and fall are the primary vacation seasons in Arkansas, but the department is trying to promote the state as a four-season destination. The department targets the South and the Midwest in its marketing efforts, and has concluded that the best prospects for tourism growth are families traveling with children and elderly retired couples.

Within Arkansas, the top five countries listed as the final destination of travelers were Garland, Carroll, Pulaski, Benton and Washington.

Of the visitors serveyed, 54 percent went to an attraction, 31 percent visited a historic site, 23 percent went to a museum, 22 percent attended an arts and crafts show, 21 percent attended a live performance, 13 percent went camping, 10 percent went hiking, 9 percent went hunting and fishing, 7 percent shopped for antiques, 5 percent played water sports and 4 percent attended a sporting event.