Hope Tourism Commission

By Staff, 10/27/20 6:16 PM

The Hope Tourism Commission held a virtual meeting on Tuesday afternoon. The minutes were approved and the commission moved to the financials. After a question on the new billboard from Lindmark and discussions on several other financial questions, the financial report was approved. One food vendor who was behind on the 2% tax and Catherine Cook noted a letter had been sent.

The Commission heard from Lauren Euseppi of Cranford, Johnson, Robinson, and Woods concerning some specialized publications. Euseppi noted the tourism commission has been running some ads in the some specialized publications such as one appealing to motorcyclists. Euseppi also wanted to talk about some disgital marketing plans. She talked about the Arkansas Tourists Guide, the Arkansas Motorcycling Guide (of which 120,000 are printed and online readership is 3,000). Also, Hope is in the “Water & Woods” guide which will be rebranded for the coming year as the “Arkansas Adventure Guide”. This one has a particularly strong readership. Euseppi noted the ads were “co-oped” with Arkansas Great Southwest last year 50/50. She suggested upping the half-page in the motorcycling guide and the adventure guide to full page ads. She said all this would cost over $11,000 but by working with the Arkansas Great Southwest regional tourism association, this could be purchases with the Tourism Commission only spending $5,900. The proposal for the print and digital advertising would be $7,182 if it was co-oped through Arkansas’s Great Southwest. The Commission voted to approve the expenditure.

The Commission heard a report from Robin Rogers of Four States Living. Rogers’ company has received the approval from the Arkansas’s Great Southwest Regional Tourism Association to produce the Great Southwest brochure. Rogers offered the Commission a multi-page centerpiece in the AGSW brochure for $6,000. She also offered an option for a stand-alone 16 page guide for Hempstead County. The board approved the 8 page centerpiece in the brochure for $6,000.

Gary Chambless asked why the meeting was on Zoom as opposed to in person at the Fair Park Community Center. He also asked when the Hope Visitor’s Information Center will reopen. Interim Park’s Director Summer Powell said the reopening will depend on the numbers of COVID cases. It was noted the employees are not being paid during this period.

Vice-Mayor Don Still noted they want to get the highway department to take better care of our exits and he also noted they can get a special permit to do more. Also it was discussed to trim or cut the crepe myrtle trees on the west bound exit ramp. Also the old Western Sizzlin’ was discussed and it was noted some clean-up work has taken place on the outside.

Dr. Trevor Coffee suggested working some batting cages in to future budgets at the parks. The meeting then adjourned.