Fort Smith, Van Buren hospitality tax revenues decline in 2025

Hospitality tax revenues in the Fort Smith metro were down in 2025 compared with 2024, but tourism officials are optimistic a downward trend will not continue through this year.

Fort Smith hospitality tax collections for 2025 totaled about $1.207 million, down 5.7% compared with the $1.281 million collected during 2024, according to Ashleigh Bachert, executive director of the Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB).

A few hotels have not reported December tax receipts, so the collection tally is not complete, she added.

“We expected to be down compared to 2024 due to the cancellation of events with government travelers, which were impacted by DOGE audits and federal shutdowns throughout the year,” she said. “While we secured larger events like the GAC (Great American Conference) Basketball Championships and the GAC Golf Championships, matching the rates set by the 2024 Solar Eclipse and its associated room-night minimums proved difficult.”

This year also got off to a rough start with a week of January lost due to a snowstorm, she said. Still, Bachert believes the sector will match 2025 numbers.

“I hope that the Fort Smith Convention Center’s efforts to host more dance competitions and events in the ArcBest Performing Arts Center will increase downtown traffic, while the opening of Bass Pro Outpost will drive outside spending to the Rogers Avenue corridor,” Bachert said.

The CVB is increasing efforts to market to leisure visitors more authentically, using social posts and videos that resonate most with an audience planning to individual or family travel, she said.

“We will also soon launch a campaign targeting local businesses to identify associations they engage with and meetings/conventions they attend, helping us attract those events to Fort Smith,” she said. “Attracting tourism requires the entire community. I hope our residents will speak positively about Fort Smith to potential visitors and help us recruit events so that business owners can prosper through visitor spending.”

Van Buren ended the year with $893,034 in hospitality tax revenues, a 3.31% decrease from the $923,579 collected in combined hotel and prepared food taxes in 2024.

The city collected $212,811 with its hotel tax during 2025, down 14.4% from the $248,477 collected in 2024. Fortunately, an increase in prepared food tax revenues bumped the year-end total allowing 2025 to fall only slightly behind 2026 in hospitality revenue.

In 2025, the city collected $680,224 in prepared food tax, up 0.76% compared with the $675,102 collected from the tax in 2024.

“Our 2025 numbers were below 2024 collections and below our budgeted amount,” said Maryl Purvis, director of the Van Buren Advertising and Promotion Commission. “I think our 2025 collections reflect the slower economy for 2025. Looking to 2026, I think we will see flat growth or some improvement as we move through the year if there aren’t any major worldwide events that may cause a slowdown in our economy. The current increase in gasoline prices will more than likely have an impact on our tourism.”