Little Rock Tourism Looks Beyond Loss of ATA World Expo

Gretchen Hall, president and CEO of the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau

Tourism chief Gretchen Hall admits that losing the ATA Martial Arts World Expo and its 20,000 attendees was a kick in the head for Little Rock, but the former collegiate athlete is absorbing the blow.

The ATA International World Expo was the largest annual gathering hosted by Hall’s Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau, a 40-year summer tradition with a yearly economic impact of $5 million in central Arkansas. It’s going away after this summer.

“I think we’ll replace that piece of business, maybe with something not quite as large or in multiple pieces,” said Hall, a former Lyon College basketball player who became CEO of the bureau in May 2011. “We’ll have the [World Expo] here again this year, for the last time, and they’re looking to bring their national tournament here. It’s smaller, but because of their headquarters here, they’re looking to add a lot of small events to continue to bring people in. They’ve been a good partner.”

In November, the LRCVB announced that the former American Taekwondo Association, which has its world headquarters in Little Rock’s Riverdale section, would be pulling out to hold its 2022 convention in Arizona.

It was a dark day in one of the best years ever for the LRCVB, with record revenue of $20 million: $14.9 million in advertising and promotion tax collections, and most of the rest from venue rentals and meeting and technical services.

The bureau held 50 gatherings at the Statehouse Convention Center, up from 35 in 2018, and 29 conventions at Robinson Center, resplendent after a $70 million award-winning renovation. The hall had 19 the year before.

Little Rock hotels saw revenue per available room rise 6% after a decline of 4.2% in 2018, Hall said.

“The things that stick out are that 2019 was our busiest year in the Convention Center in total number of events, total revenue generated by facility rentals and more pure events in all our managed facilities [Statehouse Convention Center, Robinson Center and the River Market pavilions and amphitheater].”

Travelers spent $1.8 billion in Pulaski County in 2018, the latest year of figures from the state, driving $108 million in local and state travel taxes; 350 meetings, conventions and sporting events in 2019 drew 333,884 people and generated $75.2 million in direct economic impact.

In a wide-ranging interview Wednesday, Hall reflected on the transformation of Little Rock’s convention district since she joined the bureau in 2001, the tourism surge sparked by the the Clinton Presidential Center’s debut in 2004, and even the potential effects of coronavirus on travel. (She says it’s not a problem yet in Arkansas, but her team is coordinating with national and global monitors.)

She described how her team lures and serves conventioneers and leisure travelers, and noted that the city’s two biggest hotels — the 418-room Marriott and the 288-room DoubleTree by Hilton — are within sight of her offices at Spring and Markham.

She also detailed a $600,000 new ad campaign with Paradise Advertising of St. Petersburg, Florida, and local vendor Mangan Holcomb Partners.

“The goal is to really increase our targeted advertising, using the latest technology,” Hall said. Primary targets are people 25-55 with household income of $75,000 or up. Target markets include Memphis, Shreveport, Dallas, Chicago and Kansas City. “Last year we ran with digital paid advertising of around $600,000.” Hall said. “It’s a similar number this year.”

The ad campaign coincides with the bureau’s 50th anniversary. It was founded in May 1970, and has grown to 125 full-time employees as the capital’s advocate in tourism, the state’s second-ranked industry behind agriculture.

The LRCVB is really unique, Hall said, in that it goes beyond a convention bureau’s traditional marketing and sales role. “By managing our facilities, we control a lot of the experience for visitors, and a lot of people on the national stage are envious of that model.”

Travelers spent $7.37 billion in Arkansas in 2018, the latest year with full data available. That’s up 4.4% from 2017 spending, said Stacy Hurst, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage & Tourism.

“Nearly 68,000 Arkansans work directly in the travel industry,” Hurst said, adding that 32 million people visit state destinations each year. “Our growing revenue from the state 2% tourism tax allows our state to market the Arkansas tourism message nationally and internationally.”

LRCVB’s share of local A&P tax collections totaled $14.9 million in 2019, a record, up from $10 million in 2010.

Last year was satisfying for Hall as well, despite the loss of the ATA event. She was honored as the state’s “tourism person of the year” at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism a year ago, and is proud that LRCVB facilities hosted a record 621,989 people at 2019 events. “The numbers went our way in 2019, which was good because 2018 wasn’t a really great year.”

Hall, a Sheridan girl who earned a basketball scholarship to Lyon in Batesville, said she ultimately lacked space for ATA Martial Arts.

ATA Used ‘Every Inch’

“Their primary reason for leaving was they needed more space,” Hall said. “They wanted more room for competition, and they were using every inch of what we had. We just didn’t have the capacity to accommodate their needs.” She said the association plans to keep its big masters’ ceremony in Little Rock, in coordination with the national tournament, while the bureau works to bring different events to the city.

“There’s a lot of traditional sales; it’s a numbers game,” Hall said. “Sales teams attend trade shows, and we have tools to let us research what conventions hit our market. We try to get our foot in the door, because we have a far greater opportunity to sell them on Little Rock if we can get them here to see it.”

Riverfront trails, restaurants and nightspots are lures, she said, complementing cultural destinations like the Clinton Center, Heifer International, MacArthur Park and the Central High School historic site.

“The first question we get is, ‘Will my meeting fit here?’” Hall said. “Meeting planners want to know if there’s enough hotel rooms and convention space, whether there are off-site venues. If we check all those boxes, they want to know how attendees will get here. Will they drive or fly? No. 3 is what’s there to do? Will attendees want to come? Is there a walkable downtown, are there restaurants and good entertainment places?”

She said Little Rock’s lighted bridges, river walk and terraced Clinton Center park consistently impress visitors. “People that go into our sculpture garden are blown away. The beauty of the river and its amenities, the walkability of the area and the streetcar system, I think we have a lot to be proud of here.”

2019 Tax Revenue by Business Type

Source: Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau