Executive Roundtable Q&A: Tourism Poised For Growth In 2014

Editor’s note: Talk Business Arkansas editor-in-chief Roby Brock conducted this latest roundtable which included Arkansas Parks & Tourism Director Richard Davies, Arkansas Hospitality Association Director Montine McNulty, and Hot Springs Advertising & Promotion Commission Director Steve Arrison. You can view the magazine version of this roundtable at this link.

Roby Brock – Let’s talk about jobs and labor force, first. There’s been roughly 100,000 jobs on average in the leisure and hospitality and tourism related industries in Arkansas. What kind of pressures do you sense are affecting the labor force out there?

Richard Davies – I think that obviously when the economy goes down we have lots more applicants for the jobs that are open. The good news is – Montine may have actual numbers – is that the hospitality jobs are growing faster than almost any other sector of the economy. The predictions are that they will continue that way. I get a little irritated when you hear people say, “Oh that’s just burger flipping.” A lot of those jobs can turn into management jobs and, in my opinion, hospitality has probably some of the best potential for people to move up into management positions.

Montine McNulty – I agree with what Richard’s saying and will tell you that this month the National Restaurant Association is doing a major survey because the projections and the needs are so high for the next ten years that they’re trying to figure out where are we going to get the people. One thing about our industry is we continue to need people. It’s not going to be replaced by robotics or anything else. We’re in the service industry and we’re going to have to have people.

Brock – Steve, what do you see in terms of the recruitment of workforce for tourism and hospitality in your community?

Arrison – I think if you’re looking around the state I think tourism is robust in Arkansas. Just looking at Hot Springs, we have an expansion getting ready to happen at Oaklawn – they’re going to expand by 50%. We’ve got the Mid-America Science Museum. We’ve got hotels coming and new restaurants – everybody needs people. That’s the big challenge of our industry.

Brock – So what does your industry do to meet that challenge? Obviously some training is critical, but is there something about changing the image or basically selling what the opportunities are in tourism and hospitality?

Arrison – I think that tourism destinations – the cities themselves – work very closely with the Arkansas Hospitality Association and Richard’s department. The Department of Parks and Tourism with their training programs and working with all the hospitality programs at the universities across the state. You don’t have to have a four-year degree to become a manager and make some really good money in the hospitality industry. You’ve got to have the experience.

Davies – I might add that 30 years ago there weren’t any hospitality programs at the universities to speak of. Now there are several in the state and people are realizing because of the demand that it’s a pretty good college degree if you want to find a job when you get out.

Brock – Tell me about the balance of technology versus touch. You obviously have to take advantage of things that are changing in terms of technology, but at the same time you’re still a human profession.

McNulty – The success of our industry depends on customer service. That’s a human person and a human touch. Even though we’re going to use technology to its fullest in a lot of different ways, what really interfaces with the customer is going to be a person and that’s going to take growing a workforce.

Brock – Richard and Steve, you guys are utilizing technology from a marketing perspective more than anything else. How has technology changed the industry?

Davies – The whole advertising and marketing in the media has turned upside down in the last 20 years because of the online presence. Everything from blogs to websites to mobile websites. Then on to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,.The way you do it changes and it also has great challenges on how you measure that because it’s not as simple as it used to be when you could clip a coupon from Southern Living magazine and know exactly where that came from. You throw that all into the computerization of the businesses – you know when you go to a hotel or a resort and you can play golf, over here you can eat at the restaurant, it’s all on the same bill, it’s all computerized, it’s all tied together. That’s a big change in the last few decades – and if you don’t keep up – I always said in this business if you’re treading water you’re going backwards.

Arrison – I’d have to agree with Richard, I mean we’re a high-tech, high-touch industry and I get the high-touch part of it, but you know, I go in meetings on social media with some of our younger staff members – I was in a meeting last week – and I know about Facebook and Twitter. But they came up with like three or four other types of social media that people are using now. Trying to keep up with it is a full-time job. I think the technology is there, but you can’t forget that touch. I think that’s the key to the hospitality industry and I think that’s the key to why Arkansas has been so successful. People visit us and we treat them like they’re our relatives. They love the warm welcome they get at any part of the state from Delta all the way up to the border in North Arkansas.