Business Travelers Tackle Hogs for Hotels? Attention

Although Razorback games and craft fairs are now more than ever the biggest one-time draws to Northwest Arkansas, the area’s hotels have almost entirely switched their allegiance to the business traveler. And no town has a monopoly on new hotels.

For the Benton County cities of Bentonville and Rogers, that’s nothing new. But Springdale will be catering more than ever to the business traveler, particularly with Tyson Foods Inc. soon to acquire IBP Inc. That acquisition is sure to make for a huge increase in the number of travelers in and out of the Springdale headquarters. IBP has more than 60 production sites in North America, joint venture operations in China, Ireland and Russia and sales offices throughout the world.

“With Tyson and whatever changes occur with the purchase of IBP, it becomes a bigger company, and even more people will be coming to do business with them,” said Bill Rogers, director of business development at the Springdale Chamber of Commerce.

Meanwhile, Fayetteville has held its own despite the loss of the area’s commercial airport to Benton County. In fact, only Bentonville, with six, has built more hotels in the last five years than Fayetteville, with five.

Downtown Fayetteville is seeing quite a bit of change with the Hilton turning into a Radisson and the former Mountain Inn undergoing a $12 million renovation to become a Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Marilyn Johnson, director of convention and visitors development in Fayetteville, said there is enough traffic coming into Northwest Arkansas to support its four larger towns.

“Certainly, the advantage of all these hotels in Northwest Arkansas is they will bring in more traffic to all of us, and that will all go into the mix,” Johnson said. “So, we’re all going to benefit.”

Johnson said she understands the vast majority of airport travelers are going to stay north of Fayetteville.

“Fifty percent of the traffic at the airport is going to Wal-Mart [headquarters],” Johnson said. “[Benton County] has had some really high-class properties go in up there catering to the business traveler. I don’t think we’re going to get that traveler.

“But we can capture those driving down to Dickson Street to get entertainment. And [Interstate] 540 has opened up a new market for us. We’re the first stop on the trail of towns up here. We’re also concentrating on a lot of convention business. That’s a different type of crowd. But their money is just as good.”

Fayetteville’s newer hotels are concentrated in two locations — just off the Fulbright Expressway south of the Northwest Arkansas Mall and near the U.S. Highway 62 and I-540 intersection.

The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport has had a domino effect on the hotel market in Benton County. Wal-Mart’s request for its vendors to have offices near its Bentonville headquarters has caused a boom in commercial office space near the airport, particularly at Pinnacle Hills and Village on the Creeks in Rogers and Beau Terre in Bentonville.

There have been nine hotels built within the last five years between the two cities.

The I-540 and U.S. Highway 71-Business intersection has become something of a Hotel Row at the Rogers and Bentonville lines.

“You can take a rock and hit a number of hotels,” said Tom Ginn, director of business development at the Rogers Chamber of Commerce.

“The Hampton Inn was our first new hotel in 11 years,” Ginn said. “We were behind the eight ball. But we’re catching up fast.”

Once Rogers’ five new hotels are completed, they will almost double the city’s existing rooms available. The upscale Embassy Suites Hotel at Pinnacle Hills alone will have 250 rooms as well as 20,000 SF of meeting space.

Ed Clifford, director of the Bentonville Chamber of Commerce, said he agrees that Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods and J.B. Hunt Transport Services play the major role in hotel traffic in his area. But he also feels there are other contributing factors.

“I think the growth of Bella Vista and the people that visit there have something do with [the traffic],” Clifford said. “And Beaver Lake brings in some folks. Obviously, Wal-Mart and Tyson and Hunt bring folks in here like crazy.”

Things will be a little crazier for at least five weekends this fall as Reynolds Razorback Stadium has been expanded to 72,000 seating capacity. That’s about 22,000 more possible fans than Arkansas averaged at Fayetteville games last season.

“You bring in 20,000 extra people in here, and that has an effect [on hotels] from here to Russellville,” Johnson said. “People are already staying as far away as Tulsa for the craft fairs. Although we are growing our hotels here, we can’t accommodate close to 250,000 on the same weekend.”

Johnson said an average person spends $185 per trip. And each dollar turns over seven times once it gets into the community.

Springdale has the largest convention center at the Holiday Inn and has three new hotels on its own version of hotel row near the intersection of Sunset Avenue and I-540.

Springdale officials believe their town will continue getting Wal-Mart traffic because the main exit to the airport — Lowell — is just as close to Springdale as it is to Bentonville and Rogers.

Meanwhile, the west Benton County city of Siloam Springs could have some hotel addition in the future. Cherokee Casino, located just across the state line in West Siloam Springs, Okla., has purchased 80 surrounding acres. Some hotels have made inquiries about building there.