Road-trip guide woos motorcyclists to state

STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE - Riders make their way along Dickson Street Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, during the 14th annual Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally in Fayetteville.

STAFF PHOTO ANDY SHUPE - Riders make their way along Dickson Street Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, during the 14th annual Bikes, Blues & BBQ motorcycle rally in Fayetteville.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Greg Calhoun estimates that he has been touring the northern third of Arkansas by motorcycle for at least 20 years.

Calhoun, who lives in Alabama and has a house in the Ozark Mountains town of Horseshoe Bend, has yet to run out of places to ride.

“I’m still exploring,” Calhoun said. “I’ve been riding up there extensively for the past 20 years. I tell people who ride if they have a bucketlist Arkansas should be at the top.”

Riders like Calhoun are exactly what the Arkansas Department of Tourism had in mind when putting together its first Arkansas Motorcycling Guide. Released earlier this month, the 72-page collection of road trips - sized to easily fit in a motorcycle saddle bag - is part of a formal push to make the state a destination for motorcycling tourists.

Arkansas collected a record $12.8 million in tourism tax revenue for 2013, and tourism officials view riders as an opportunity to continue that growth. Motorcyclists like Calhoun, a software analyst with a weekly podcast dedicated to motorcycling, are attracted to the state because of the overall quality of its roads and the wide variety of scenery offered. Some view Arkansas as a destination because it has no mandatory helmet law for riders 21 and older.

Included in the guide are 21 tours, ranging from the curvy and treacherous 53-mile “Jasper Disaster,” which includes Arkansas 7 and Arkansas 43, to the “Crowley’s Ridge Parkway/National Scenic Byway,” a 194-mile route that runs from the Mississippi River near Helena-West Helena to Piggott in northeast Arkansas. Each of the tourism department’s six “destination clusters” is represented in the guide.

Eureka Springs Mayor Morris Pate, himself a motorcycle enthusiast, said the state is smart to tap into the motorcycle community.

“Look at our variety and diversity of what we have to offer,” Pate said. “You want mountains? We have them. If you’re scared of the mountains, try the Delta. Don’t want the Delta? Go down south to timber country. I’m tickled to death the state is doing this.

“Even if we don’t promote it, they’re still going to come. Look at what is happening in Fayetteville.”

Fayetteville’s Bikes Blues & BBQ Rally each fall has become one of the country’s largest and most popular event for those who ride. Crowd estimates for the 2013 event topped 300,000.

An economic impact study released last week by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas Sam Walton College of Business estimates that the rally generates between $69.4 million and $80.9 million for the region.

Each rider, according to the UA study, spends just under $110 per day. Studies report the average age of motorcyclists in the United States is 47, and many of them are professionals with money to spend while in the area.

“These are not the bikers your mama warned you about,” Arkansas Tourism Director Joe David Rice said. “These are doctors and lawyers and such.”

Smaller rallies in Helena-West Helena, El Dorado, Hot Springs, Mena and Mountain View also are popular with riders from outside Arkansas. Seeing the attraction of those events led the Department of Parks & Tourism to send representatives to the Progressive International Motorcycle Show in Chicago, a trade event that drew more than 65,000 attendees. There, Arkansas was pitched as a destination for riders.

Parks & Tourism Region 5 Supervisor Grady Spann was part of the Chicago team. Spann, a motorcyclist, touted the state’s “culture, roads and hospitality.”

“These are the things that make a big difference to a biker,” he said.

Individual communities and events also are being encouraged to make smaller-scale pitches of their own. Even events that aren’t motorcycle-specific are being advertised to riders.

Helena-West Helena, for example, has begun visiting with motorcycle groups about its tourist favorites like the King Biscuit Music Festival each October and Civil War-related tours. Julia Malinowski , director of the Helena Advertising & Promotion Commission, said the Delta community has more to offer riders than just the Wild Hog Motorcycle Rally set for April 24-27.

“It’s a new thing for us to target the riders directly,” Malinowski said. “We get a good amount of motorcycle traffic through Helena and we, like others in the state, see the opportunity for more.”

Business, Pages 71 on 03/16/2014