HOPE – The Hope Tourism Commission once again converged this year for their monthly meeting at Hope City Hall on August 11th.
To open, the July 2026 minutes, revenue, and expenditures were unanimously approved.
Revenue from the July tourism tax was $80,791.91, while the expenditures turned out to be $50,008.86. This is a continuation of a good year for the tourism tax.
With some exciting news, Hope Parks & Recreation Director Summer Chambers gave the board an initial report on the annual Hope Watermelon Festival:
Reporter: In general, how do you think the festival turned out this year?
Chambers: “It was very successful! This is the 11th festival I have worked at, and this year’s rendition really takes the cake. We had 130 cars for the car show, 650 runners for the Watermelon 5k race, 119 teams for the softball tournament, and 16 teams for the soccer tournament. Overall, we couldn’t have asked for a better festival.”
Reporter: How did the Saturday night concert go?
Chambers: “It was amazing as well. The attendance was mind-blowing, with the line for tickets starting at the ticket booth at Legion Field flowing all the way past the beef barns on the other side of the coliseum. Both hometown singer Mae Estes and Gretchen Wilson brought loads of support.”
Reporter: What one part of the festival contributes the most to its success?
Chambers: “Softball for sure. It brings the biggest financial boost to Hope out of any of the events. Checking our preliminary numbers, the festival’s attendance numbers not including the softball tournament comes out to be 13,500. Shuffling in softball, this number grows to 32,300 people. This exponential increase in turnout becomes more believable when you think about how many people are brought in when there are 12 to 15 players per team, 119 teams in total, plus any family members that came to watch.”
Official numbers will be out by the time of the next tourism meeting.
More pieces of news out of the tourism meeting include a presentation by Ashley Moore, who was representing Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods Inc. She came before the tourism commission with possibilities for advertising Hope in the coming year. She recommended an ideal advertising package for Hope including digital and print marketing. Her initial suggestion totaled to be $33,580. However, after an anticipated contribution from Arkansas’ Great Southwest, the resulting figure came to $21,540. Tourism board members took no action but expect to vote at the next meeting.
Towards the end of the meeting, tourism directors went into executive session and returned shortly with news of a $10,000 a year pay raise for Parks Director Summer Chambers.
