BENTONVILLE -- The Advertising and Promotions Commission agreed Thursday for Visit Bentonville to place money set aside for two purposes to be placed in two investment vehicles.
The organization's $360,000 set aside in operational reserve will be put in a certificate of deposit, and the $580,000 it has set aside to upgrade fields at Memorial Park will be placed in a money market account.
The operational reserve is used if there's an economic downturn or a natural disaster takes out a hotel, reducing the amount of lodging taxes collected and remitted to Visit Bentonville, said Chris Sooter, board chairman.
"It's a cushion for funding our operations for a year," he said.
There are at least two banks in the city that are offering 12-month certificates of deposits at 2.5 percent interest, Sooter said. The idea would be to renew the certificate of deposit with the best available interest rate, he said.
The $580,000 will be used early next year so it can't be in a long-term investment account, said Kalene Griffith, Visit Bentonville president and CEO.
It could collect about $10,000 in a money market account with a 1.3 percent to 1.35 interest rate, Sooter said, and it would be able to be retrieved when needed.
The commission approved both decisions. Commissioner Matt McClure was absent.
Griffith also reported attending the Atlanta Wine and Food Festival the first week in June was a success.
Visit Bentonville, Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism partnered to host a few events during the festival to highlight the Arkansas culinary scene.
One of those was a breakfast for the media where more than 30 people attended. Griffith said she met with 12 and organizations including USA Today and CNN Travel.
"They're very interested in what's going on here," she said.
It's likely that writers will visit Bentonville and publicize the culinary scene. The value of having exposure is more than what Visit Bentonville could pay for, she said.
Griffith likened it to the when the International Mountain Bicycling Association held its 2016 World Summit in Bentonville. Travel writers attended and published stories throughout the next year about Bentonville trails. The value was $1 million, Griffith said.
NW News on 06/22/2018