CONNECTING THE DOTS New LRCVB master plan seeks to leverage attractions, build momentum in tourism

By Dwain Hebda

Little Rock sits at an opportunistic threshold when it comes to enhancing tourism, replete with individual attractions but wanting in areas of infrastructure and cohesion. Such are the findings of the Little Rock Convention and Visitor’s Bureau’s recently released 10-year Master Plan, the farthestlooking blueprint produced in the organization’s history.

“[The plan] is seeing Little Rock through a visitor’s lens,” said Gina Gemberling, LRCVB president and CEO. “The motivation behind it was as an organization coming out of the pandemic and how it changed so many things within our industry. We felt it was the perfect time to engage an outside organization to come in and work with us to get their feel for where Little Rock is going in the future and what potential might be there.”

The plan, completed over about a year, was conducted by New York-based JLL Global Tourism and Destination Advisory, which conducted extensive interviews with local stakeholders. This input played a critical role in the final plan and its recommendations for the future.

“Worth noting is the level of community and stakeholder interest and support in this project,” said Bethanie DeRose, JLL senior vice president. “We do these all over the place, and when you invite people to focus groups or invite people to join advisory committees to be part of a plan, you get different kinds of turnout.

“I would say in Little Rock’s case, we had great turnout throughout. There was high interest from the very beginning that this was a type of project that was intended to have a longer shelf life and that could heavily impact the community over the course of 10 years.”

The LRCVB is unique in that it operates several properties, including the Statehouse Convention Center, Robinson Center, Cromwell Building, several downtown parking decks in the River Market, Ottenheimer Hall, First Security Bank Ampitheater and the pavilions. A full 21 percent of the state’s tourism dollars were spent in Little Rock in 2021, $1.6 billion worth.

Jim Keet, chairman of the parent organization Little Rock Advertising & Promotion Commission, said coming on the heels of the unprecedented events of the pandemic, the new 10-year plan seeks to learn how to improve as it charts new and different paths forward.

“We’re doing a very good job as compared to other CVBs across the country,” he said. “The process for this plan was very positive. It wasn’t one of those, ‘We’ve got to hire a consultant because we’re screwing up so badly, we’ve got to fix it.’ It was, ‘We got a wonderful foundation that’s been laid over the last couple of decades. How do we get even better?’”

Through the interviews and focus groups segment of the plan, four common themes emerged. Participants agreed more investment is needed to create a multi model transportation network, making various attractions more easily accessible and the need for improved marketing resources for businesses, allowing them to better connect and create placemaking opportunities for visitors. Stakeholder input also pointed out a need for better use of the area’s natural spaces to boost visitor numbers and developing a consistent brand identity for Little Rock as a destination.

From this input the process identified nine action areas:

• Product development: Identify and develop new tourist attractions and improve or create facilities for hosting certain events.

• Tourism infrastructure: Improve or create connectivity and transportation options to sites around the city.

• Placemaking: Development of green spaces, trails and other public and open spaces.

• Targeted marketing: Leverage data to ensure marketing efforts and messaging are reaching the right audiences in the right way.

• Enhance the visitor experience: Ensure visitors are afforded concierge-like treatment while here.

• Optimize the Statehouse Convention Center and Robinson Performance Hall.

• Community engagement: Devoting resources to equip local constituents and community stakeholders in the process of promoting Little Rock from within.

• Destination perception: Through positive storytelling and partnership with Little Rock Police Department efforts, improve overall perception of the city as a safe place to visit.

• Breaking down barriers: Ensuring principles of equity, inclusion and diversity are incorporated into every aspect of tourism promotion and event creation.

“Several of the things in the plan we were expecting in some respect, although maybe not to the magnitude that’s in the plan,” Gemberling said. “There are several items and priorities in this plan that we knew were outliers, but we just couldn’t put our finger on. I think this plan really helped us with that, by identifying these nine priorities and recommendations.”

Gemberling said much of the immediate work will be internal, such as identifying potential funding for the needs outlined in the master plan. However, two external elements will be more conspicuous to the public this year, she said.

“One thing you’ll see coming quickly in 2023 is innovation at the Statehouse Convention Center,” she said. “During the COVID pandemic, several of our capital projects were put on hold, not knowing what was happening in our industry and our business. For the facility to remain competitive, we do have substantial renovations scheduled for the Statehouse Convention Center; you’ll start to see them within the next few months and, depending on timing and getting the contractors in, through 2024.”

DeRose called those efforts, as well as maximizing the other spaces under the LRCVB’s scope of responsibility, as one cornerstone for improving and enhancing the level of tourism overall. At the same time, she said, event spaces don’t operate in a vacuum but must take into account such things as availability of hotel room inventory sufficient to handle the additional demand that comes with more events.

“For the facilities at the Statehouse Convention Center and the Robinson Center that the LRCVB operates and is responsible for selling and booking and managing, we applied our convention center optimization analysis,” she said. “We looked at history, we pulled every day that the building was used, every space that was used, by every group that used it for a five-year history. We had a pre-COVID look and then a little bit of the mid-recovery look. We could better understand how the space has been used, and was there room to increase that output.

“We found that one, there was room to increase that output, which is not unusual in our industry to see convention centers with room for growth. But we also had some constraints, because we have to look at our hotel landscape and how much inventory we have there. This plan, and the subsequent business plan that the LRCVB and team worked on, can really start to put one foot in front of the other in terms of how we move the ball forward from a sales and marketing perspective to add to that usage.”

The second immediate focus falls under placemaking and is related to the opportunities at hand downtown as a result of the I-30 highway and bridge improvements currently underway. The new configuration eliminated several on- ramps, freeing up ground for as-yet undecided use. The plan advocates developing the space as a large park and public event space “an opportunity for iconic placemaking in the heart of the destination.”

“Having 18 acres of green space right in the middle of our downtown area provides so much potential there,” Gemberling said. “I think the stars are aligning how we, as a city, can transform those 18 acres, and how can we better utilize that to service our visitors and make sure our visitors have a pleasant experience.”

The LRCVB is not alone in its desire to see the ground used for greenspace, and while no final decision has yet been made on the part of the city, proponents got a bit of good news in February. City officials announced receipt of a $2 million federal grant for development of a deck park over I-30 between 6th and 9th streets, improving access and connectivity in the city’s core neighborhood.

This follows the ongoing development efforts of the Southwest Trail, a cycling route that will connect Little Rock to Hot Springs via an off-traffic trail similar to the Razorback Greenway in Northwest Arkansas. Marketing such integrated greenspaces, both natural and man-made, naturally dovetails into tourism marketing, Gemberling said.

“A key to our marketing efforts, and one of our key selling points that we will be continuing to build on in the future, is our outdoor scene and how it’s connected to our downtown area,” Gemberling said. “There aren’t many destinations where you can jump on a trail right in your downtown area and be in the middle of nature within minutes. That is a really big plus for us, and we’ll continue to use that and continue to build that message in our leisure marketing efforts.”

Keet said as the plan continues to unfold and address projects and improvements over the next decade, community involvement will be key.

“Oftentimes plans are put together at great expense and great effort only to be relegated to the closet and not acted upon,” Keet said. “Part of the JLL contract is to continue working with us to make sure that we are aggressively pursuing the implementation of that plan. It’s not just, ‘Here’s your product. See ya.’

“I can say most of the time when we have a LRCVB get-together and invite the community to participate, we’ll have a predictable turnout of 50 to 60 people. We rolled this out, and we had 200 to 250 people, community leaders, local leaders, leaders from the state. And we have received nothing but strong endorsements of the plan and the direction that we’re heading.

“I guess what I’m saying is, if you don’t have a good plan, why would people want to participate? But if you have a great plan, that inspires people to want to be involved, to contribute and make sure that it is successful. I believe that’s what we have.”