HOT SPRINGS -- The Hot Springs Convention Center and the local tourism industry continue to feel the financial impact of the covid-19 pandemic, and Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison said if government aid doesn't become available sooner rather than later it could be detrimental for the future of local hotels and restaurants.
"The tourism industry has not gotten any help from the state or the federal government; very little, especially convention centers," Arrison said, noting the Hot Springs Convention Center has not "gotten anything, no help at all, not with payroll, absolutely nothing."
"I read an article [Wednesday] where it's projected one out of four hotels cannot pay their mortgage right now. So if we don't get some assistance for the tourism industry, I'm afraid we're going to see some shuttered hotels and restaurants," he said. "We were the first industry impacted, we'll be the last one to recover, and nobody is paying any attention to us at all."
He said Visit Hot Springs is reaching out to members of the local legislative delegation to ask them to go to the CARES Act Committee in Little Rock and get some financial aid for the tourism industry.
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"And we need it now. We don't need it later, if we get it later it's going to be too late. So hopefully our legislators -- the ones I've talked to have been very supportive -- and hopefully we can get the message up there to help us. ... Some of the privately owned hotels, they have got some of the [Paycheck Protection Program loans], but they need more than that, they were actually shut down. Our convention center, we didn't get anything and we bring in a lot of money to the state of Arkansas," Arrison said.
"Our hotel business," he continued, "is starting to come back, but ... hotel revenue April through June this year was down almost 58%. Went from $16.8 million down to $7.1 million, from that same time period last year."
With 108 convention center events having been canceled or postponed to next year since March 13, Arrison said it simply means the center, and therefore the tourism industry, is in "dire shape."
The convention center has not been eligible to get any help from any assistance programs, he said, noting, "We've just been trying to limp along here and hopefully this thing will end. We've laid off over 20 of our 60 employees permanently. The meetings business has been severely impacted. We have 20 events left between today and the end of the year and those are very small, more local-type events."
He said there are a "whopping" three events scheduled at the center in September.
"And usually [September] is packed with events," Arrison said. "We keep seeing cancellations every week. ... The good news is everything that has canceled has basically postponed for 2021, but are we safe in 2021? Just a lot of unknowns right now."
With a small number of events occurring at the convention center, VHS recently decided to suspend commission payments it required from Turf Catering Co. until Jan. 1, 2021.
"If you look at their Turf Catering report you can look and see how their business has been impacted by this, and Turf has been a great partner of the convention center since we opened the expanded facility, and it's just the right thing to do," Arrison said. "With little to no revenue, most of our business is canceled and I'm going to try to help them as much as I can."
He said that there was a successful event that involved 400 masked people in Horner Hall over the weekend, and it should serve as an example for future larger gatherings.
"Baseball Weekend went very well," Arrison said. "We had over 400 people at the panels, the baseball card show went very well, everybody wore their mask, social distancing was not an issue. ... I think if you wear your mask and wash your hands and the facility is doing what [it's] supposed to do, there's not a problem with meetings."
All-in-all, he said the convention center is on "life support" until the year ends.
"Resort communities, especially in Hot Springs, we make our money during the big season and then it gets really slow in November and December," Arrison said. "The downtown businesses especially rely on our convention business, but the streets are usually full this time of year and there's nobody here. We've got probably 14, 15 legitimate events until the end of the year. ... We're more a civic center than a meeting facility right now. So I think we'll definitely start seeing [shutdowns] by the end of the year [if government aid isn't provided]."