The Natural State gets its name for a reason. With 52 state parks and a national park within its borders, Arkansas is a can’t-miss for outdoor enthusiasts. Beyond that, other attractions such as casinos, museums and an amusement park draw people to visit the state, as well.
Last year, tourism brought $10.3 billion to Arkansas’ economy, the 2024 Arkansas Tourism Economic Impact Report states. That is an all-time high for the state and a 4 percent increase from 2023’s total of $9.9 billion. The money was brought in by roughly 50.2 million visitors.
Arkansas State Parks operates one of the country’s most dynamic parks systems. Pictured is Davies Bridge at Petit Jean State Park in Morrilton.
Each Arkansas household would have to pay $930 to replace the amount of state and local taxes paid by visitors in 2024, the report states. The tourism industry in Arkansas also supported 71,633 jobs last year, and those workers made a collective $2.2 billion in income.
Outdoor recreation alone contributed $7.3 billion to the gross domestic product of the state and supported 68,000 jobs.
“You have these beautiful, crystal clear lakes with great fishing,” said Shea Lewis, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism and director of Arkansas State Parks.
Shea Lewis
He noted the unique experiences and year-round entertainment that the state offers, such as digging for diamonds at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro or going to see a musical act at the Walmart AMP in Rogers. Lewis himself likes to float and fish across the state.
“We know visitors are looking for experiences,” Lewis said. “It’s less about where you’re at but more about what you’re doing. Arkansas has some of the best, most unique experiences.”
HOT SPRINGS
In Hot Springs, tourism is a main driver for the economy, said Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs. Some of the main places that draw visitors to the area are Oaklawn Hot Springs, Magic Springs Theme and Water Park, Hot Springs National Park, the local lakes, and more.
Steve Arrison
The area welcomes about 9.3 million tourists a year, the Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn bringing 68,000 people into Hot Springs on one day alone. Visitors spent an average of $2.5 million per day in Garland county in 2023, totalling $902.3 million, the Garland County Tourism and Economic Impact Report states.
Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs (Visit Hot Springs)
According to the report, Hot Springs National Park welcomed 2.5 million visitors in 2023. Those visitors generated $184 million for the local economy.
Downtown Hot Springs is booming thanks to tourism. The report states that $28.7 million in capital investments were made there in 2023. That year, 27 new businesses opened downtown, and 13 commercial properties were sold.
BENTONVILLE
In the northwest corner of the state, Benton County, which includes Bentonville, saw $1.2 billion dollars in spending from visitors last year.
Kalene Griffith, president and CEO of Visit Bentonville, said that many things bring people to the city, including cycling trails and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which saw nearly 785,000 visitors in 2023, its website states.
Kalene Griffith
Restaurants also drew tourists in, with 47 new restaurants opened in the area last year. A report showed that 25 percent of patrons at Bentonville restaurants are visitors, but they make up 50 percent of the income at those establishments, Griffith said.
Large annual events brought many visitors in, as well, including the Bentonville Film Festival, Bentonville Bike Fest and new exhibits at Crystal Bridges.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville (Visit Bentonville)
“We’re seeing those economic drivers that are bringing in people from all over the world, especially the cycling ones,” Griffith said.
She added that what draws people to the area are all the amenities offered there, which benefits not only tourists but the people who live locally.
“We have big-city opportunities and amenities,” she said.
Visit Bentonville has chipped in to build up amenities in the city, including investing about $3 million in a partnership with the city to expand a local baseball field.
The mix of visitors coming for business and leisure makes Bentonville a destination year-round, Griffith added.
Recently, lodging spending has been down in the area, she said. That reflects numbers at the state level, too, which measured 16 million overnight visitors in 2024, down 1.2 percent from 2023, according to the 2024 impact report.
“I think there is an uncertainty of the environment we’re in right now,” she said. “People are unsure if they should take that big trip or hold off.”
She also said that bouts of bad weather have hurt tourism to the area somewhat, but overall, Griffith believes visitor numbers will continue to grow.
BENTON
There are new attractions coming to other areas of Arkansas, too, including a Buc-ee’s in Benton, which broke ground in April and is expected to open September 2026. A Buc-ee’s of similar size in Tennessee saw about 5 million visitors its first six months, Benton Mayor Tom Farmer said.
“We are told that Buc-ee’s is a destination for people, which I truly believe after talking to people who have traveled and stated that they planned their stops for fuel around Buc-ee’s locations,” Farmer said. “We have also been told that people will travel 200-plus miles to stop at a Buc-ees. We hope that when they stop, they come to our beautiful downtown area and visit the many shops we have or even visit one of our great restaurants that are located downtown.”
Mayor Tom Farmer
Farmer has been to a Buc-ee’s himself.
“I can tell you that it truly felt like Christmas shopping with the grandkids because their eyes were big, their excitement was great, and they truly wanted to see everything before they chose something,” Farmer said.
While Buc-ee’s is set to increase tourism in the area, there are other attractions that have been bringing people to Benton already. One is the Third Thursday street festival, which Farmer said sees a little more than 5,000 people each month. Visitors also come for the plays at the Royal Theatre, he said.
(Image provided by the Royal Theatre)
In the way of outdoor attractions, Benton has a mountain bike park located a few blocks from the downtown area and other parks that host sporting events.
“Benton welcomes all to our beautiful city,” Farmer said. “As we like to say, we want you to feel at home. Whether you live here or are just visiting, we want you to feel like you are home in Benton.”
OUTLOOK
Throughout the state, tourism was greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but numbers recovered quickly.
In Bentonville, Griffith said that it only took about 14 months to get back to 2019 numbers.
“I think that’s because we’re a business destination, so we’re fortunate,” she said.
Arrison said the numbers are finally “settling out” after a large postpandemic travel boom that has been seen in Hot Springs and around the state in the past few years.
“A lot of people discovered Arkansas during that time,” Arrison said.
Lewis said the state parks have also seen a plateau in its number of visitors.
Nationally, the same trend is being seen. Domestic leisure travel has come back fully to prepandemic levels. However, business travel nationally and international in-bound travel still lag behind prepandemic rates, according to the 2023 Garland economic study.
The growth of the tourism economy in Arkansas is not stopping, just slowing. The economic impact has returned to an average 3 to 4 percent increase per year in the state, Arrison said.
“The positive continued growth supports the work we’re trying to do and the impact tourism has on the state,” Lewis said.
