Cool water religion

The realization hit me in the face like cool water spray from a canoe bow plowing through fast-moving sections of the Mulberry or Buffalo rivers.

But I was firmly butt-planted in a conference chair with coat and tie — with pen, rather than paddle in hand — listening to Richard Davies and Jeff Collins talk, respectively, about Arkansas’ tourism economy and a fundamental shift in the global economy.

Davies, head of Arkansas’ Parks & Tourism Department, and Collins, an economist for The City Wire’s The Compass Report, spoke during the recent 2012 The Compass Conference held in Fort Smith.

The mix of commentary from Davies and Collins birthed the realization.

Davies noted: "We have a lot to be proud of, and a lot to promote. Wherever we go, we need to never not promote Arkansas. Why would anyone want to relocate a business to a community they wouldn’t want to visit? Moving forward, we need to invest our dollars and our attitudes in Fort Smith, and in Arkansas."

Collins posed this challenge: "What will our strategy be? We need to come up with long run strategic plans — something that will generate jobs instead of constantly reacting to the way things are.”

And when Davies noted that tourism “levels the economy out,” and in Arkansas it is a sector comprised of “hundreds of small businesses serving the traveler,” that’s when it hit me.

Arkansas’ tourism sector shouldn’t be a leveler; it should be a leader.

Before the conference, I thought I understood and fully appreciated the benefit of Arkansas’ tourism economy. For example, travel generated expenditures from $404.906 million in 2010 to $426.167 million in 2011. Travel generated jobs rose slightly as well from 3,652 to 3,688.

The sector employed 105,400 in December, up from 103,800 in December 2010. Also, the sector hit peak historical employment of 106,100 during July. Employment in Arkansas’ tourism and business travel sector is up 23.4% between December 2011 and January 2001.

By comparison, Arkansas’ manufacturing sector — once the backbone of Arkansas’ economy — employed 155,000 in December. Employment in the sector is down 34.3% compared to January 2001. If trends continue, tourism employment could outpace manufacturing employment by the end of the decade.

Arkansas’ tourism sector shouldn’t be a leveler; it should be a leader.

And by way of further comparison, Arkansas’ tourism sector has enjoyed a higher rate of growth in the past 11 years than all but one of the state’s key economic sectors.

The only sector to see greater growth in the past 11 years is Arkansas’ health and education sector. Employment in the sector — which employed 170,800 during December 2011 — is up 32.9% between January 2001 and December 2011.

Arkansas’ trade, transportation and utilities sector — now the state’s largest — posted December employment of 235,200. Employment in the sector is up 2.85% between January 2001 and December 2011. Arkansas’ tourism and business travel sector is up 23.4% between December 2011 and January 2001.

Arkansas’ government sector is up 14.56% between January 2001 and December 2011. Arkansas’ tourism and business travel sector is up 23.4% between December 2011 and January 2001.

Employment in Arkansas’ professional and business services sector is up 16.3% between January 2001 and December 2011. Arkansas’ tourism and business travel sector is up 23.4% between December 2011 and January 2001.

Again, Arkansas’ tourism sector shouldn’t be a leveler; it should be a leader.

Collins reminded The Compass Conference audience that most of our jobs losses are because economic conditions allow those jobs to be moved to lower cost areas. Instead of complaining about jobs leaving for Mexico or China or India, we should accept “the truth of a global economy” and how important it is to “embrace an entrepreneurial spirit” within the region.

Bingo. Arkansas’ tourism sector shouldn’t be a leveler; it should be a leader.

Try exporting the Buffalo National River. I dare you to move Crystal Bridges. Good luck moving the National Forests in Arkansas, or the growing number of modern and welcoming Arkansas State Parks. If we ever get funding for the U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, the state will have three nationally prominent facilities — along with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville and the Clinton Library in Little Rock — to promote. Also, two words that define a dynamic and unique tourism asset that can’t be out-sourced: Eureka Springs.

And there is the unexportable history of Johnny Cash and Levon Helm and Glen Campbell and Albert King and Jimmy Driftwood.

"We all take wherever we are for granted, and Arkansas is the worst I’ve ever seen about it," Davies said during The Compass Conference. "Do you realize we have 40 million people within 400-500 miles of us? All these Yankees and Texans are driving 400-500 miles to see these things we take for granted.”

Davies said he was joking about the Yankees and the Texans. But he wasn’t. Davies and other tourism leaders have done much in recent decades to raise the industry’s profile. He knows Arkansas’ tourism sector shouldn’t be a leveler; it should be a leader.

Unfortunately, a majority of Arkansas’ incentive programs are geared toward manufacturing and other non-tourism business sectors. I’d be surprised if 10% of the Quick Action Closing Fund used by Gov. Mike Beebe to recruit or retain jobs has been used for tourism-related projects.

If Arkansas’ tourism sector is to become a leader instead of a leveler, we’ll need a collective cool-water-splash-in-the-face realization that our natural assets and rich history should not be treated as an ancillary segment of economic development.

"The world has fundamentally changed,” Collins said in his closing remarks. “Understand that the rules have changed, figure out what the rules are, and let’s kick some butt. … You will never go wrong investing in yourself."

Several hundred leaders in Arkansas’ tourism industry are gathering Sunday through Tuesday (March 4-6) in West Memphis at the 38th Annual Arkansas Governor’s Conference on Tourism.

There is nothing on this year’s agenda about butt-kicking and self-investment. But after all, this is a more hospitable and polite crowd. They can kick butt and call it a massage. And most of these tourism folks understood long before Yours Truly that Arkansas’ tourism sector shouldn’t be a leveler; it should be a leader.

I’m now born again in the tourism religion. Let’s hope Davies and other tourism leaders can baptize the state’s political leaders in some of that Natural State cool water of realization.