The tourism in Arkansas is blooming with the creation of7.8 billion economic impact and more than 60,000 jobs.
In 2018, the 2 percent tourism tax generated over $16.3 million, according to Cynthia Dunlap, interim-executive director of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.
Dunlap said that they have been going up consistently for since 1990. We’ve only had one year where we had a decrease in revenue which is in 2009.
The department’s been instrumental in promoting its new website and pushing social media to attract newcomers to the Natural State.
Dunlap also remarked that one of the programs that we just talked to the vendor about today, is a travel writer programme for minorities where they’re putting in an application so that they can go to school at Fayetteville and meet with our travel writers and get into that field.
There’s also a focus on attracting retirees to settle in Arkansas. For two years in a row, over a million people have visited Arkansas’ welcome centers.
