---------- From: Russ Skallerup To: editor Subject: Tourism Date: Sunday, May 04, 1997 4:48 PM Dear editor: Over the period of the past several weeks the "Tourism Industry" promoters have been dishing out awards and accolades to individuals who have been recognized for their support of tourism. "Tourism Industry" is really a misnomer since most of the representatives on Advertising & Promotion Commissions own or operate hotels/motels and/or restaurants. Isn't it really a restaurant/hotel industry? There was a time when only restaurants with sit-down seating collected the "hamburger tax," but those days are gone. Thanks to the greed of A&P commissions, theaters, candy stores and gas stations are now forced to hammer the consumer. April of this year marked the thirty-second year Hot Springs has suffered the tax to support a group of business people who lobbied the Legislature to allow the tax. The reason the group asked for the legislation is because it could not get enough cooperation to support an advertising program from its own crowd. While some get recognition awards, the only reward the Hot Springs citizens have received from the establishment of the ad commission is higher and higher taxes. For our support of local businesses we get misleading promises and a faltering ad program and poor commission administration. The loss of the Combs Agency is not a significant or noteworthy occurrence. Agencies come and go. The problem it that battle lines have been drawn to "hang on" to an agency that clearly broke a logical business ethic that you don't service competing clients. It is strange that Mr. Combs, and apparently some on the commission, cannot understand this. The fiasco of the burgeoning inventory at the Tower gift shop points a finger, or maybe more, to the fact that no one is minding the store. I attended the last commission meeting and found it unusual for Don Raulie to not answer the question of what the cost of the goods sold at the liquidation auction was and how much was received for the goods. As best I could tell, after much jitterbugging around by commissioners and Raulie, the goods cost $56,000 and sold for $15,000. Ask any business person and find out how much of a success you would construe this sale to be. Oh well, it's only taxpayer money. The report on convention and group sales was not one to warm the hearts of the commission nor the taxpayers. Tour bus groups were down in 1996 about 50 percent from the previous year. A report by Jerry Porter said that the Mid America Science Museum attendance was down considerably from the previous year. The report sparked a question asked of Eric Jackson as to how the transfer of the museum to an independent "friends" group, headed by Cecil Cupp, was moving. Jackson's terse response..."it's in the embryonic stage." (Parenthetically, discussions on transferring the museum have been going on since 1990, at the least. The third cent on the hamburger tax was added in the early 80's when the Hot Springs A&P took over operation and maintenance of the building.) Not amusing was the suggestion by Raulie to buy scanners for the museum gift shop to control inventory via computer. This, when the museum is supposed to be divested. It's only taxpayer's money. Some commissioners were visibly delighted when mention was made that the Arkansas Entertainers Hall of Fame was being reconsidered by Parks & Tourism. The deal is this: Parks and Tourism will provide seed money to a bidding city if the city will manage and support the Hall after it is in business. Sound familiar? Hot Springs has been through this with the Math & Science School and the aforementioned Museum. How can we good citizens of Hot springs turn down such largess for the good of our city? After all, if we don't get it, some other city will. Again, sound familiar? Will we be snookered, again? The Civic Center, we find out, will not seat 10,000, it will not have retractable seating, the auditorium for performing arts as well as the facade design is in limbo and who knows about the resolution of the acoustics nemesis. Take care dear reader, the ship carrying our tourism economy is rudderless and no good captain is at the helm. But, we're all going down together, even those who received the commendations. Sincerely, Russ Skallerup