Boosting entrepreneurs, community offerings are key focus for outdoor recreation economic growth

To capitalize on Arkansas’ growing outdoor recreation economy, state leaders are building and expanding resources to help entrepreneurs and communities with grants, startup accelerators, online marketing, and a new venture capital fund.

Katherine Andrews, director of the state’s Office of Outdoor Recreation, presented Wednesday (May 21) at the Arkansas Rural Development Conference in Little Rock an overview of initiatives that are underway.

“The Office of Outdoor Recreation is ready to help community members, mayors, county judges, people in chambers of commerce, and economic development organizations understand the role that outdoor recreation plays in our economy,” said Andrews.

She noted over the last 50 years that economic development has shifted from “chasing smokestacks” – which remains important – to “quality of life” as a big incentive for those seeking jobs.

“When people move to a location now, they’re looking across the country at where can I go that has a really good school system, that has places for me to go play outside, for me to raise my family, and then jobs. They look for jobs after that. So that paradigm has shifted, and we’re trying to help communicate that and really get resources out there for community members across the state,” said Andrews.

Outdoor recreation generated $1.2 trillion in economic activity nationwide in 2023, accounting for 2.3% of the U.S. GDP and supporting 5 million jobs. That $1.2 trillion figure includes manufacturing of outdoor goods. A Heartland Forward study released in February suggested outdoor recreation contributes $7.3 billion to Arkansas’ GDP and supports 68,431 jobs in the state.

In Arkansas, fishing, hunting and recreational vehicle (RV) travelers constitute the largest sectors of outdoor economic activity in terms of investment and spending. Cycling is climbing the list with a multitude of public and private investments in recent years, while running and hiking remain popular.

Andrews said trends indicate that more casual outdoor recreation is of interest to tourists. According to studies, an outdoor tourist spends approximately $416 per day.

“So can you imagine an injection of 50,000 people to your local area every year spending $416 every time they come every single day? What a shot in the arm that would be for your local economy,” she said.

Andrews highlighted her office’s grants programs, which include money for walking trails, splash pads or playgrounds to encourage more active outdoor lifestyles. These grants can range from $100,000 to $250,000 and communities under 7,500 in population can qualify.

Andrews explained that a good portion of the outdoor recreation economic activity comes from entrepreneurship, but those entrepreneurs often lack access to capital. As a result, Andrews announced the state’s first venture fund for outdoor recreation called “Rec Tech” is set to launch with the goal of encouraging entrepreneurial development in the outdoor recreation sector.

“We have developed a concept to create the state’s first venture fund for outdoor recreation, ‘Rec Tech.’ We are really, really close to the launch for that, hopefully later this year or early next year will be the launch of that venture fund,” she said.

Andrews also noted that her agency is coordinating projects through collaborations with other state agencies and private partners, such as the Game & Fish Commission, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, local governments, and the Nature Conservancy.

The Office of Outdoor Recreation is working with the Arkansas Department of Transportation on their Transportation Alternatives Program and their Recreational Trails Program grants, which are specifically for trail building. Many communities will often take advantage of both to maximize grant benefits, she said.

Andrews added that in two months, the Office of Outdoor Recreation website will get a complete facelift. The site will feature interactive graphs and data highlighting how different outdoor activities’ rank or how they have developed over the years, which should be useful to those looking for the best way to grow in this sector. It will also feature a business directory with every outdoor recreation company in Arkansas, allowing those who hold local leadership positions to search these companies by region or type of company.

“If you’ve got a guide or an outfit or service in your area, and nobody from the chamber has ever gone and said, ‘Hello, how are you? Do you need anything?’ This might be your chance,” said Andrews.

The website will also list resources and grants, one being the Guide Program, a new initiative to showcase outdoor companies and guides who go above and beyond. It will launch in a couple of weeks, but essentially, guides can log all of their credentials on the website, and then once a year, the office will post a list of the vetted Arkansas guides making them easily accessible to tourists online.

“If you build it, they will come. If we take care of it, it will be there for generations after us,” said Andrews.

Editor’s note: Caroline Scurlock and Roby Brock contributed to this report.