Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Little Rock To Be Featured In New PBS Show

2 min read

Emmy-Award-winning TV host Darley Newman will dedicate an episode of her new “Travels with Darley” show to Little Rock, tourism leaders announced Tuesday. It will air this summer on PBS.

The news headlined a “Travel ’16” event that celebrated the second largest industry on U.S. Travel Rally Day (May 3) at the Statehouse Convention Center. It was part of National Travel & Tourism Week, May 1-7.

Capi Peck, chair of the Little Rock Advertising & Promotion Commission, said the first season of Newman’s show just ended and reached 94 percent of the U.S.

Peck also said one of the segments, called “Southern States Road Trip,” featured Bentonville, Hot Springs and Little Rock. It is available online from the MSN, AOL and Huffington Post websites, and will air May 24 on PBS, she said.

John Mayner, vice president of marketing for the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau, also announced the launch of a social media contest.

The prize is “a premier vacation package to Little Rock,” he said.

Contestants will be asked to watch a video promoting the city, which was shown at the “Travel ’16” event Tuesday. The bureau is asking them to then choose the activity the video features that they’d most like to do and explain why they choose it.

Kane Webb, executive director of the Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism, also spoke Tuesday.

He said, last year, the state had more than 28 million visitors. That’s up from 25 million the year before, Webb said. They spent $7.2 billion here, generating $374 million in state taxes and $137 million in motor taxes.

In February, he said the 2 percent parks and tourism taxes were up 13.8 percent from the same time last year.

Pulaski County had more than 6 million guests in 2015, up from 5.7 million in 2014, Webb said. They spent $1.8 billion, contributing more than $100 million in state and local taxes.

“That’s a strong and powerful industry,” he said.

Also, according to a news release, the tourism industry employs more than 100,000 in Arkansas (more than 10,000 in Pulaski County).

Send this to a friend