‘Frontier’ tourism promoted in new magazine

Tourism agencies, hotels, restaurants, chambers of commerce and other tourism and travel-related businesses and organizations were recently handed 55,000 magazines to help promote tourism in what is called the Western Arkansas Mountain Frontier.

The magazines, sold and produced by Little Rock-based CJRW, provides tourism industry information in Crawford, Franklin, Logan, Polk, Scott and Sebastian counties. Titled “History. Beauty. Adventure,” the 60-page magazine includes information on living in Fort Smith, regional attractions, scenic mountains, driving tours and festivals and events.

In the driving tours section, the six counties are divided into four driving tour areas. Tour one includes the Fort Smith and Van Buren areas; Tour two covers Ozark, Altus and the wine-producing regions; Tour three covers Mt. Magazine and south Sebastian County; and Tour three covers Queen Wilhelmina State Park and most of Scott County.

Many of the magazines are used by the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce to mail out in relocation packets and tourism info requests. During the spring and fall, the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism places ads in publications in several states. Those ads encourage people to request info on certain regions of the state.

“We send anywhere from 1,200 to 1,500 out when those spring and fall pushes go out,” said Janie Glover, with the Fort Smith chamber.

Glover also said individuals and businesses are welcome to come by the chamber and pick up copies of the magazines. She said it is important to get the new magazines out to potential tourists in and out of the region.

That interest is certainly financial.

In 2010, state Parks & Tourism officials reported that travel expenditures — tourism, business and other travel — in the Western Arkansas Mountain Frontier totaled $404.906 million. The payroll from the spending in the region was estimated to be $66.76 million, 3,652 jobs in the area tied in some way to the tourism and travel sector.

In March, the state Parks & Tourism department unveiled an $8 million marketing campaign built almost entirely around use of the word, “natural.” Advertising built for television, Internet, magazines, radio and other media encourage the audience to be “Spoiled by nature,” “Beautiful by nature,” “Wholesome by nature,” “Authentic by nature” and to do other things “by nature.”

As to how the about $8 million budget breaks down, the department plans to spend  40% on television, 25% on magazine, 16% Internet, 6% newspaper and about 4% on radio.