Fort Smith Hotel Revenue Jumps 12 Percent

Fort Smith hotels have hit a vicious spike, thanks in part to a volleyball tournament in February.

For the first five months of this year, hotel revenue in Fort Smith was $8 million, a 12 percent jump over $7.1 million in the same period of 2004. That compares to a 10.7 percent increase statewide and a 9.6 percent increase in Fayetteville.

“There’s been an increase in attendance as far as what is coming in on an annual basis,” said Claude Legris, advertising and promotions director for the Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau. “A volleyball tournament in February had a record attendance, and a girls’ 12-and-under softball tournament had a record year with about 34 teams.”

Fort Smith was only expecting a 2 percent increase in hotel revenue this year, Legris said.

Darla Rosenfield, general manager at the Comfort Inn in Fort Smith, saw her hotel’s revenue jump 32 percent during the first five months of 2005.

Rosenfield credits the city’s convention and visitor’s bureau for organizing a sports council that lures tournaments to the city. The organization schedules tournaments that are spread out over several weekends to create a steady flow of visitors.

For the past several years, Fort Smith hotel revenue had increases in the low single digits. In 2003, revenue was up 1.8 percent to $17.4 million for the entire year. In 2004, revenue increased 4 percent to $18.1 million.

“I think that pretty much mirrors the national trend and the statewide trend,” Legris said of this year’s increase.

Hotel revenue statewide is up, thanks largely to the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock.

In 2004, Arkansas had more visitors than ever before, said Joe David Rice, director of the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism. Last year, Arkansas had 20.7 million visitors who spent $4.3 billion here. That’s a 10 percent increase over 2003.

“I think [the increase in tourism] is a whole factor of things,” Rice said. “I think people are feeling more confident about the economy.”

He said many travelers are paying no attention to the price of gasoline.

Rosenfield agreed that Fort Smith appears to be seeing more tourists since the opening of the Clinton library. In 2004, her hotel had a 10 percent increase, netting $1.1 million. That figure puts the hotel at No. 5 on the top five list of Fort Smith hotels based on revenue.

Rounding out the top five last year were the Hampton Inn with $3.5 million in revenue, Holiday Inn City Center with $3.3 million, Residence Inn by Marriott with $1.4 million and Holiday Inn Express with $1.1 million.

Fort Smith will get another boost in hotel revenue once the three-story Courtyard by Marriott, a John Q. Hammons project, opens in 2006. Jimmie Deere, the city’s building department official, said the cost to build the 94,000-SF, 138-room hotel is $7.7 million and that construction would start in early August.