The City Advertising and Promotion Commission agreed at the April 24 meeting to hire interim director Mike Maloney as Tourism Director. Commissioners had interviewed two other candidates, but the unanimous vote declared Maloney as first choice to be the administrator with remuneration of $90,000 a year.
Financials for the first quarter, January through March, reflected a five percent decrease of what was anticipated. Comparing March 2023 to March 2024, food and beverage has seen a two percent increase, but lodging has decreased by three percent and total revenue is down by one percent.
Commissioner David Avanzino asked Maloney if it was possible to get a list from Madden Media’s reports reflecting AirBnB, Vrbo, and other such sites of those operating short term rentals to compare with those who have legally been authorized to run such businesses to see if any without permits have been avoiding paying taxes.
Maloney responded that they could get a list from Vrbo, an online marketplace for vacation rentals, but AirBnB does not keep such a list. He acknowledged that this is an issue that has come up in the past, for Eureka Springs and other cities, and it is strange that AirBnB has a substantial revenue but cannot track where the money goes.
He said he was pleased with the Sweet Spring tourism promo video on April 12. On June 2 there will be an event to premiere the recording, a food and landscape commercial documented by drones. He said that invitations will be sent out.
Maloney was jazzed that the CAPC has been hosting 58-minute breakfasts, the last one tackling how to attract young tourists. Commissioners and the business community are encouraged to attend, and each session is filmed and available in 10-minute videos that will be posted starting the first week of May.
Maloney presented a Madden Media update: the amount of people clicking on eurekasprings.com is up more than 20 percent. On Google display there were 1,599,369 people seeing or looking up Eureka Springs, and Expedia had $148,000 in bookings for March.
Expedia is linked to Vrbo, and Maloney suggested discussing whether to add them to the portfolio at the next meeting. He pointed out that they spend $12,800 on Expedia. Most tourists seem to be coming from Little Rock, Tulsa, and Kansas City, but Madden recommends doing more to target place such as St. Louis and Chicago. Eureka Springs Facebook and Instagram accounts have also seen a steady rise in visitors.
Maloney then shared that a citizen had complained that the Aud is not Americans with Disabilities compliant. Mayor Berry brought in an ADA expert from Little Rock to look at the floor of the Aud, which the citizen had said was not level for a wheelchair. Since the Aud is an historic building, it is not required to be ADA compliant according to the expert. Maloney said that the city is responsible for the Aud, but that the CAPC does “ample adjustments” to make people with specific needs comfortable, including a lift in the back of the building for those in wheelchairs.
Funding requests were initiated by Director of the Eureka Springs Historical Museum Jeff Danos, requesting marketing support for Voices of the Silent City, an annual cemetery tour with actors portraying famous denizens of the city. It is held two weekends in October, after several questions from commissioners he was granted the funds. Good Shepherd Humane Society is planning to put on The Dog Days of Summer Music Festival Saturday July 20 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. to raise funds for the city’s No Kill shelter. It will be an all ages, pet friendly event that will feature a full day of concerts and vendors. They were also granted the requested funds to advertise.
Dee Bright with the Preservation Society requested funds to advertise for the annual Tour of Homes at Christmas, which will be celebrating its 44th year. The money raised by the event will go to repair the Crystal Bridge above the library. Funds were granted to advertise the event.
All three requests were accepted for $5000 each.
- The CAPC spent $20,000 on concrete and $13,200 for metal railings to enhance Basin Park.
- A delinquency list has been made of businesses that have not paid CAPC tax collections, and liens will be put on those in arrears.