ROGERS — Business, recreation and group travel is picking up in Northwest Arkansas, advertising and promotion officials said.
Business travel peaked in 2007 and 2008, then dropped off, but has been steadily gaining since 2010, officials said.
“It’s going to be a record year for hotel and motel tax revenue,” said Allyson Twiggs Dyer, director of the Rogers Convention and Tourism Bureau. The Advertising and Promotion Commission is part of the bureau. The commission collects a 1 percent tax on hotel accommodations.
“We bottomed out in 2010, but it has been rising ever since.”
Bill Rogers, vice president of communications at the Springdale Chamber of Commerce
“We’re up about 13 percent in collections this year compared to 2011,” Dyer said.
October collections are the most recent figures available. Through October 2011 the commission collected $510,255 compared with $577,558 for the same period this year.
“I think business travel is rebounding, as is convention travel, which are a big part of our hotel business,” Dyer said.
The Purple Heart organization will return to Rogers for a convention in 2013. It’s the first time the organization has visited the same location twice, Dyer said.
“They were here in August 2009 and are coming back next year. One of the reasons they are returning is to visit Crystal Bridges. It wasn’t open in 2009,” Dyer said.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville opened in November 2011.
There is no way to determine how many people stay in Rogers while visiting Crystal Bridges, Dyer said, “but I think the museum is a major draw for this area.”
The Bentonville Advertising and Promotion Commission, part of Bentonville’s visitors bureau, also is seeing signs of more travelers in the area. A 1 percent tax is collected on hotel accommodations and prepared food in Bentonville.
The commission collected $917,468 in 2011, according to the commission website. Through October of this year, the commission has collected $871,102.
Kalene Griffith, president and chief executive officer of the bureau, was not available for comment.
Pat Slatton, information coordinator for the commission, said she has seen a rise in requests for information packets in the past two years. Slatton sent out 2,369 packets in 2010 and 2,449 in 2011.
“This year we had requests for 8,011 packets. That’s a pretty big increase,” she said.
Springdale Advertising and Promotion Commission, which collects a 1 percent tax on hotel accommodations, saw collections drop from $256,870 in 2007 to $192,966 in 2010.
“We bottomed out in 2010, but it has been rising ever since,” said Bill Rogers, vice president of communications at the Springdale Chamber of Commerce, which oversees the commission.
The Springdale City Council approved a 1 percent increase in the hotel tax in 2011 which took effect in October 2011.
“We saw an immediate increase with the tax increase. It would be easy to jump to the conclusion that it was just the increase that was upping our collections,” Rogers said.
October is generally a good month for hotel stays, Rogers said.
“Sure, we saw an increase from 2010 to 2011 in October, but if you look at previous Octobers all of the increase wasn’t due to the tax increase. We had some very good Octobers before the tax increase,” Rogers said.
Through November, Springdale has collected $287,446 compared with $230,894 last year.
“Group travel is where we are seeing the biggest increase, although business travel is picking up as well,” Rogers said.
Fayetteville, which collects a 1 percent tax on hotel rooms and prepared food, still draws many travelers.
The Advertising and Promotion Commission collected $2,312,625 through October, compared with $2,298,186 for the same period last year, according to commission reports.
“It’s been up just about every month this year,” said Tanner Montgomery, visitor service manager of the Fayetteville Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“The university and the sporting events are still the biggest draw during the year, but Bikes, Blues & BBQ and the Walton Arts Center certainly contribute to our tourism,” Montgomery said.
The advertising and promotion commissions use money received to publicize their respective cities. Some offer financial support to events which it is believed will have a positive financial impact for their cities.