LEAVING THE LIGHT ON

Hot Springs tourism endured pandemic and looks at record year

By Kenneth Heard

With its diversity in entertainment and attractions, Hot Springs has survived through times of gangsters, floods, fires and even a global pandemic that shut down most of the country.

Now, with a multimillion-dollar expansion at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort, more businesses and restaurants opening and ongoing discussions to turn a burned hotel and its land into a gathering place, the Garland County town of 38,000 is poised for even bigger success.

“We’re on such a roll,” said Steve Arrison, the CEO of Visit Hot Springs. “It’s incredible. It looks like 2023 will be a record year in Hot Springs again. I don’t see it stopping.”

More than 3 million people spend at least one night in Hot Springs each year, Arrison said. At least 2.5 million visit Oak- lawn for its horse racing, casino and hotel each year, added Amy Thornton, a spokesman for the facility.

The tourism boon also helps Hot Springs attract more manufacturers and businesses, which means more money, Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce President Gary Troutman said.

It continues the cycle of success – more attractions bring more people. More people mean more money and more money means funds for yet more attractions.

“The sky’s the limit,” Troutman said. “Our secret sauce for success is that our community, our business leaders, the hospital and

[community] college are all getting along and working together. There’s no end. We are going in the right direction.”

There had been some dips in Hot Springs’ growth, said Robert Rains, the owner of the Gangster Museum of America. In March of 2008, he recalled, when he first opened the museum that highlights the rollicking era when organized crime ran rampant in the Spa City, more than 30 downtown buildings were boarded up.

But things began turning around.

“People started to build again,” Rains said. “I’ve not logged a single year without an increase in tourists and revenue. I don’t want to say much because I don’t want to jinx it. But Hot Springs is covered up.”

Hot Springs has a long history. Its natural thermal springs were seen as a means to cure various ailments, and people flocked there for its healing waters. Professional baseball teams held spring training in the town. (Babe Ruth, then a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, clouted a 500-foot home run out of Whittington Park in 1918 that changed the focus from his pitching to his batting prowess).

“Back in the 1930s, people thought the springs were a cure for everything,” Rains said. “The Hot Spring National Park is a major draw. Everything else that we have is gravy to visitors.”

The town even thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic, Troutman said.

The 2020 state high school basketball tournaments were scheduled to be held in the Hot Springs Convention Center, but state health officials closed the contest before it was completed due to the fear of contaminations.

Horse racing at Oaklawn was shut down for six weeks that spring. But people continued to visit Hot Springs.

The lure of the national park’s hiking trails and the lakes of Garland County provided activities that didn’t require the gatherings in close quarters that federal officials were banning.

“We had people coming from all over,” Troutman said. “Texas folks were coming up here to do things. People were tired of being locked up.

“We had people banging on locked business doors wanting to come in,” he said.

The horse track resumed racing on May 4, 2020, and city officials called for a “full-scale” opening. The city’s not seen a dip in activity since.

“Hot Springs became a refuge for people to visit during COVID,” said Tony Valinoti, owner of Deluca’s Pizzeria. “People were tired of being indoors. We have the lakes, hiking and biking trails. Even though capacity was limited in restaurants at one point, people came out in force.”

When air travel was restricted during the pandemic, because of its proximity in the central U.S., Hot Springs still had out-ofstate visitors driving in from Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Hot Springs is four hours by road from Dallas and three hours from Memphis.

Valinoti moved his restaurant to a new spot on Central Avenue in February. The new space includes a bar and an outdoor patio.

“It’s just right,” he said of his new location. “It’s something I’ve always wanted, and we were able to move there.”

Rains said the cooperation of local officials and the community have helped turn Hot Springs into the top tourism attraction in the state. It hadn’t always been that way, he added. Decades ago, the town leaders were a bit more secluded.

“Hot Springs is a microcosm of the United States,” Rains said. “This is a fascinating town.”

Oaklawn’s expansion is yet another draw for more visitors. The $100 million project offers The Bugler, a fine-dining restaurant that includes a view of the track; The First Turn Bar, located near the first turn of the track in a climatecontrolled patio; a luxury spa and fitness center; hotel rooms that look down onto the racetrack; and an event center that can hold meetings, dinners and concerts for up to 1,450 guests.

“Partnerships between business, government and the community all worked towards one goal,” Oaklawn General Manager Wayne Smith said. “The goal of providing visitors and tourists a safe, fun place to find some of the best indoor and outdoor entertainment activities in the country.”

Troutman said plans soon call for securing water rights from Lake Ouachita. Twenty-three million gallons of water will be available and tunneled to the city.

“There’s massive developmental potential with that,” Troutman said.

There’ve also been talks of converting the Majestic Hotel property into some sort of economic development, Troutman said.

Fire destroyed the yellow-bricked hotel on Feb. 27, 2014. City fire officials suspect the fire may have started when people, who sheltered in the abandoned hotel, set a fire to keep warm.

The hotel sat on 5.2 acres with an adjacent 5.7 acres behind it, and Troutman said some prospective developers have talked about creating a large pavilion and meeting area with a water feature in the front. However, talks have been sporadic since the hotel site was razed nearly a decade ago.

“It’s exciting, but ….” Troutman said. “It’s a hurry-up-and-wait project. We’ve been contacting a lot of investors.”

“We’ve got 31 miles of biking trails, hiking trails through a national park, the Majestic Park baseball stadium,” Arrison said. “We’ve got a lot of spokes in the wheel, and they all point to Hot Springs.”

For Valinoti, it’s more than just a spot for his restaurant.

“I’ve lived all over the U.S.,” he said. “I’ve lived in California, Las Vegas and Miami. The light switch is really on here. Hot Springs is my home.”