Resort towns in Arkansas reported a busy Memorial Day weekend.
Hot Springs Mayor Pat McCabe said his downtown was "really hopping."
"Hot Springs had a robust weekend in the downtown area," he said.
McCabe and his wife own Hotel Hale, a boutique hotel with nine rooms. McCabe said all nine rooms were occupied Saturday night, and the hotel was almost full Friday and Sunday nights.
"We were very sparsely booked going into the weekend, and it just picked right up," he said. "I talked to a lot of the merchants, and while they probably didn't have a record weekend, it was right up there."
McCabe said most people he talked to were in town for one or two nights. McCabe said he talked to people visiting from Dallas, Houston, Shreveport, Missouri and Memphis.
"The tourists have come back," he said.
Heber Springs Mayor Jimmy Clark said it was a busy weekend on Sandy Beach. The city leases the beach from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has jurisdiction over Greers Ferry Lake. Clark said it's one of the largest lake beaches in Arkansas.
"It was a very pleasing weekend, let's put it that way," he said. "The last two weeks have been more robust than I anticipated. The boat traffic has been phenomenal on the lake."
"We have a boat dealer up here who says he's having trouble getting enough boats to sell. He's having a very busy month. So there are some really good signs."
Clark said he knows the pandemic isn't over, but it's nice to see things start opening up. He said restaurants in Heber Springs also seemed to have a good weekend, even though they were limited to 33% capacity and other restrictions.
"I've really got to compliment our community and the visitors coming in," Clark said. "We haven't had any issues whatsoever. We still consider the virus very serious. We still are very aware that we have to follow the right steps."
Eureka Springs Mayor Robert "Butch" Berry said the weekend was better than he expected.
"The town was, I won't say packed, but I bet we were 50 to 70% back to normal," Berry said. "One of our major stores in town said they had a 5% increase over Memorial Day weekend last year."
Berry said some restaurants were doing well, but many were still open only for carry-out or delivery.
"We're seeing the parking lots fill back in," he said. "It's making me feel a lot better."
Over the weekend, video surfaced of a crowded pool party at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, as well as a photograph of crowded boats on Lake Hamilton in Arkansas.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson addressed overcrowding in his daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday.
"We had a very good weekend, and there's a lot of good news in Arkansas in terms of how everyone did in following social distancing and guidelines," Hutchinson said. "I know that the national media focuses on one or two instances in which things went bad. And that shows a lack of discipline when people are not socially distanced, whenever they are congregating where the virus can spread rapidly, and that is a concern to me.
"You don't diminish it, but you also want to recognize how many people in Arkansas have done the right thing, setting examples by employers, by the staff wearing masks, by the restaurants doing such a good job. And the vast majority are really paying attention to follow the guidelines and to make sure that they do not contribute to the spread of this virus.
"But there are more than a few that put their own comfort and convenience above the health of others, and that is not helpful."
Metro on 05/27/2020