Tourism industry dips in Rogers, while other NWA cities see gains

Tourism-related tax collections were up in Springdale, Fayetteville and Bentonville in the first eight months of 2016, whereas Rogers saw a decrease that can be attributed to room closings and a lag in corporate travel early in the year, the city’s visitors’ bureau director said.

Hotel tax collections in Rogers were $511,375 in the first eight months, down 3.3% from the same time period last year, according to Talk Business & Politics’ Tourism Ticker.

Visit Rogers Executive Director J.R. Shaw said the city had a “rough quarter” at the beginning of 2016, but he believes it will finish strong.

“In the first quarter of 2016, about 25% of our rooms were off-limits for one reason or another, for things like renovations and repairs,” Shaw said. He also pointed to a slight curtailment in corporate travel during that time, further contributing to a “slow start to the year.”

Downward trends in domestic business travel tied to volatile financial markets were carried over from the previous year in January, February and March, according to the U.S. Travel Association’s Travel Trends Index.

Rogers is unique in the region for its focus on business travel and the meetings market because of the presence of key venues including the John Q. Hammons Convention Center, Shaw said, adding that the corporate market has made up some ground in recent months.

“By all accounts, we had a very good October – one of the highest ever – and November has also been strong,” he said, crediting high-performance hotels, Razorback games and craft fairs as reasons for the boost. Shaw believes the last quarter will make up for pitfalls earlier in the year, and Rogers’ tourism market will do well overall.

In the other three cities, the first eight months saw varying levels of growth. Springdale had the biggest bump, with hotel tax collections marking an 8.5% increase over the same period in 2015, reaching $294,733.

“We’ve seen consistent growth in our hotel collections all year long,” said Bill Rogers, vice president for communications and special projects at the Springdale Chamber of Commerce. “I think it’s a reflection of our strong economy. I also think our great facilities and central location put us on the leading edge of increased business travel,” he said. “Leisure travel is also growing across the state and region and we benefit from that as well.”

In Fayetteville, combined collections for hotel and restaurant tax were up 7.3%, reaching $2.13 million, and Bentonville collected $1.49 million, up 4.6% from the same period in 2015.

Visit Bentonville President Kalene Griffith said the uptick “continues to show our growth as a destination.”

“Our growth allows our team to promote our city as a destination for arts, meetings, sports, cycling and culinary,” she said. “All of these have an economic impact for our city so we can continue to invest in the full experience of Bentonville.”

Griffith named a few contributors to growth in the industry, including a new hotel. “We had the opening of Four Points by Sheraton open in 2016, adding over 100 rooms to our inventory this year from the previous year,” she said.

Griffith also pointed to the city’s restaurant scene. “We are seeing new concepts for restaurants that are developed to be a destination. Our culinary scene continues to get national press, which is bringing people into our city and region,” she said.

This year’s collections gains reflect a slow-down in growth for the cities, compared to data for January–August 2015 reported in the Tourism Ticker. In 2015, Springdale, Fayetteville and Bentonville each saw double-digit growth year-over-year. Springdale hotel tax collections rose 17.2% to $271,681, while hotel and restaurant tax collections in Fayetteville were up 15.3% that year, reaching $1.99 million. In Bentonville, hotel and restaurant tax collections rose 11.8% to $1.43 million, and in Rogers hotel collections were up 8.1% to $527,873.

COUNTY DATA SHOWS GAINS
In addition to measuring January–August hotel and restaurant tax collections within cities, the Tourism Ticker looks at collections of Arkansas’ 2% tourism tax for the previous year.

Statewide collections of the tourism tax have been on the rise the past five years, and they reached an all-time high in 2015 at $14.82 million, up 8.3% from 2014.

Three Northwest Arkansas counties landed in the top 10 list for 2015 tourism tax collections, their totals comprising 35% of the $7.4 million taken in by the top 10.

Benton County was number two on the list, with $1.25 million in tourism tax collections, up 6.8% from 2014. It trailed Pulaski County, the number one collector, by a little more than $1 million.

Washington County came in fourth, showing a marked increase of 14.7% by collecting $888,926 and trailing Garland County by $160,074. Carroll County followed, collecting $476,837, representing a 3.7% uptick, according to the data.

Rounding out the top 10 tourism tax collectors stateside were Sebastian ($398,714), Baxter ($273,354), Mississippi ($251,898), Crittenden ($250,226) and Craighead ($248,350) counties.