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By Dacus Thompson, League Staff
Like a cultural magnet plopped in the middle of our
state, the Clinton Presidential Center attracts new tourists
and commerce with prodigious range. More than 20,000
visitors toured the $165 million state-of-the-art facility
during the Thanksgiving weekend-10,000 more than anticipated-from
almost every part of the world. The increased traffic
through Little Rock boosted downtown businesses tremendously
and added an almost palpable sense of arrival for a city
that has long promised greatness. But what does this
mean for the rest of Arkansas? Mostly, more revenue and
an opportunity to show off what the state already has.
"We're trying to let people that never thought of Arkansas
know that we have world-class trout fishing and musicians,
festivals like King Biscuit, the only diamond mine in
North America," said Joe David Rice, tourism director
of Arkansas Parks and Tourism. "We want to let them know
we have a little bit of everything around the state."
Cities with a tangible Clinton connection, such as Hope
and Hot Springs, scrambled to cash-in on the swelling
number of Clintonites in the state during the Center's
opening. Hope had a Clinton Center pre-celebration, which
included a speech from former Secretary of Transportation
Rodney Slater and drew more than 700 visitors throughout
the week; while Hot Springs offered Clinton-themed oddities,
the most popular by far being what is essentially a presidential
trading card. "We printed 100,000 cards and they're already
gone," said Steve Arrison of the Hot Springs Convention
Center. The card, which is the ninth in a series, doubles
as a brief history of Clinton's life in Hot Springs and
an advertisement for the Spa City. "We're accenting the
idea to stay here and drive up to the library and then
come back to do all the great things to see and do in
Hot Springs," Arrison said. A new history exhibit in
the Hot Springs Mountain Tower, which opened a week before
the Center, features information on Clinton's Hot Springs
years. A handful of cities only loosely connected with
Clinton are taking steps to solidify their place, however
small, as part of the Clinton tourist machine. "We at
present do not have a Clinton connection," said Marilyn
Heifner of the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion
Commission, "but we are trying to purchase the house
the Clinton's lived in ... so to connect with the other
presidential cities." Still more cities that don't have
direct connections with Clinton look to capitalize on
the influx of revenue through their proximity. "We feel
the international market is really going to take off,"
said Karen Trevino, executive director of Advertising
and Promotion for North Little Rock. Trevino mentioned
that a company in the United Kingdom is making press
releases to strike people's interest in the United States,
and especially Little Rock. "We have an attraction that
we have not had before to draw those people here." Although
much of North Little Rock's citywide improvements have
little to do with the Center, the city still hopes improvements
such as the River Rail will bring visitors across the
river. "Everybody's really working together to make this
whole area one destination," Trevino said. With new welcome
centers in El Dorado and Texarkana, plans for centers
in the Van Buren/Fort Smith area and Corning and a $35
million lodge complex on Mount Magazine, the Arkansas
Department of Parks and Tourism is not going to let this
chance to expose Arkansas's other attractions slip by.
"There are just a lot of good things happening in the
state right now," Rice said. "We think we're on the threshold
of some very good days for Arkansas tourism."
Municipalities
around state seek share of Presidential Center's
magnetic aura
Volunteers
keeps cities and towns humming
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