Religious convention to bring 28,000 to Fort Smith area

Roofing work helped boost tourism tax collections in 2008. Tourism officials hope religious work will do the same for 2009 figures.

Fort Smith hospitality tax collections in 2008 totaled $803,591, 11% more than the $723,548 collected in 2007, and more than 19% above 2006 collections. The taxes are collected from a 3% tax on hotel room rates.

In Van Buren, hospitality taxes generated $410,274 in 2008, up 7.2% over 2007 collections. The city collects a 1% tax on hotel room charges and on restaurants/prepared foods.

“It was the storms,” Claude Legris, executive director of the Fort Smith Convention & Visitors Bureau, replied when asked about the 11% increase in 2008 collections.

April and June hail and wind storms, respectively, created millions of dollars in damage to area homes, businesses and trees in the Fort Smith region.

“Responding to all the damage from those storms caused a real influx of people for a number of weeks that showed a spike in (hotel usage) over the previous year. That is not something that is going to happen every year,” Legris explained.

CHURCH MONEY
Legris and Ramona Moon, convention sales director for the bureau, are hoping a four-weekend convention of the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witness at the Fort Smith Convention Center will help alleviate the loss of the spike in 2008 hotel usage.

Their hopes aren’t without merit.

According to Moon, the convention will be held the last weekend in May and the first three weekends in June. Each weekend brings a different segment of the Jehovah’s Witness church, with almost 7,000 people attending each weekend, or around 28,000 for the four weekends.

“That’s a lot of people!” Moon said, pointing out the obvious. “They’ll be filling about 6,900 hotel rooms each weekend. … And it’s not just rooms here (in Fort Smith).”

Moon said hotel rooms are booked in Alma, Roland and Van Buren.

Not including the hotel costs of about $485,000 per weekend, the average convention-goer spends about $85 a day, Moon said, meaning the potential direct economic impact of the convention is around $2.38 million.

“Naturally, they won’t go to the bars, but they are shoppers … and they will use our restaurants,” Moon said.

Legris said the potential for the economic impact is why the bureau subsidized the convention center rental to the tune of $45,000.

Also, Legris said, landing the Jehovah’s Witness convention is a perfect example of how the “tourism team” of Moon, the staff from various hotels, and Frankie Hamilton’s staff at the Fort Smith Convention Center, worked together. Hamilton is the director of the convention center.

“They all pulled this together. It wasn’t just me or my staff … this was a true team effort. It took Frankie’s crew, the hotel guys, it took us all to recruit this,” Legris explained.

2009 EXPECTATIONS
Despite the national economic woes, Legris estimates a 5% increase in hospitality tax collections in 2009. His original estimate was higher, but the Convention & Visitor Bureau board encouraged him to use a “more conservative” 5% estimate, Legris said.

His optimism is based on the good reports he continues to hear from area hoteliers and in the growing popularity of regional sporting tournaments like Battle at the Fort and a regional bowling tournament that will bring thousands to the area over a five-weekend span in March, April and May.

“So far, the regional economy is not being hit like the national economy. We still have good business traffic, or at least that’s what I hear from my hoteliers,” Legris explained. “I also see the growing number of (hotel nights) from these volleyball and bowling and other sports. … These regional (tournaments) are not just holding tough in this economy, they are growing.”