Heritage Tourism Operating On The ‘3-3-Sleep’ Principle

A mailbox sitting in front of the Johnny Cash boyhood home near Dyess is a place where messages are often left to honor the music legend.

An official with Arkansas State University’s Heritage Sites Program said another message has been left – tourism has had an impact in communities like Dyess, Tyronza, Piggott and Lake Village.

During a recent talk at the ASU Agribusiness Conference, Dr. Ruth Hawkins said the group’s sites – the Cash boyhood home, the Lakeport Plantation in Lake Village, the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum in Piggott and the Southern Tenant Farmers Union museum in Tyronza – draws visitors from around the country and world.

The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum honors author Ernest Hemingway, whose in-laws at the time lived in the Piggott area. The Southern Tenant Farmers Union museum looks at the history of one of the first integrated unions in the country, Hawkins said.

The newest site in Dyess is drawing visitors as well.

“It is kind of interesting and amazing with the number of foreign visitors,” Hawkins said of the Cash home, which opened last August.

Many of the visitors will head to Memphis and visit places like Graceland and Sun Studios first before heading across the river to visit the Cash home, Hawkins said.

Recently, a group from Ireland toured the home and Hawkins said nearly two-thirds of the messages left in the mailbox are from international visitors.

The boost in regional numbers has likely helped a statewide increase in the tourism industry.

The state’s 2% tourism tax collected nearly $13 million through the first 11 months of 2014, while 113,900 people worked in the field during December 2014.

That workforce number was up 7,000 over 2013 numbers, while the field has seen a 23% increase in the past decade, content partner The City Wire reported last week.

TYRONZA
The roads in and around Tyronza were covered Monday with sleet and ice as people battled the elements to get around town.

About 800 people live in the Poinsett County town. The town has two restaurants, a gas station, a bank, a garage and a funeral home among its businesses.

Keith Forrester, co-owner of Tyboogies, one of the restaurants in town, said his restaurant gets several out-of-town visitors each week.

Some of the customers will go to the museum or the Cash home before eating at the restaurant. Forrester said a group from Buffalo, New York recently paid a visit.

A lot of the visitors are also from the Memphis area, Forrester said.

The revenue from the town’s one-cent sales tax has also benefitted.

The town received $36,580 from its sales tax in 2014, up slightly from the $33,000 the sales tax collected in 2013.

For 2014, the sales tax averaged about $3,000 a month.

However, the monthly sales tax revenue nearly doubled from May to June 2014.

The town collected about $4,700 in June of last year, compared to nearly $2,600 the month before, numbers showed.

One possible reason for that increase involved the town’s festival – the Stars and Stripes Festival. Several Vietnam-era veterans were honored at the event, with a miniaturized version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on display for nearly a week.

‘3-3-SLEEP’ PRINCIPLE
Hawkins said the sites have not only helped to educate people about the history of the region, but provided many towns an opportunity.

“Tourism is an interesting business because it is not self-contained, like a plant or factory,” Hawkins said.

She said people are looking for the basics when they visit a place.

“In tourism, there is the ‘3-3-Sleep’ principle. People want three places to visit, three places to eat and a place to sleep. … Hopefully, we will be able to capture that,” Hawkins said.