CAPC eyes flat budget for 2027

Eureka Springs tourism officials are considering a largely unchanged budget for 2027, with fewer trips to trade shows and a possible shift toward a mobile promotional vehicle and expanded public relations efforts.

The City Advertising and Promotion Commission discussed those priorities at its regular meeting Wednesday, Oct. 28. Finance director Ty Reed said proposed budget figures would be available for a workshop scheduled for Nov. 11.

CAPC director Mike Maloney said economic uncertainty, travel costs and political unease surrounding the Nov. 3 general election factored into his recommendation for a flat budget.

“The price of fuel and transportation costs. It costs more money to come on vacation than it probably ever has. Those are things that we cannot directly control,” Maloney said.

“We would rather go ahead and give you a flat budget that hasn’t changed much based upon the fact that we’ve had a good year thus far.”

Through September, the CAPC’s total income was $1,706,000, exceeding the budgeted $1,673,000, Reed reported.

Commissioners also discussed strong business activity during the Oct. 23-25 weekend, which included the annual Zombie Crawl.

“As far as I know, from what I’ve been hearing from businesses, it was best weekend ever,” said commissioner Susane Gruning, who also serves on the city council.

While Maloney expects the overall budget to remain similar to 2026, he proposed reducing the number of trade shows attended by CAPC staff.

“This past year, there was a lot airplanes flying around with our personnel in it,” he said. “So, we are going to go ahead and propose cutting back the shows to 50 percent and maybe even more than that.”

Instead, Maloney suggested purchasing and outfitting a vehicle to promote Eureka Springs at festivals and other events around the region.

“What we would like to do is a consideration to build a mobile travel van for displays, that on the side of it, big, bright, bold ‘Eureka Springs,’” Maloney said.

Commissioners expressed interest but said the vehicle should be distinctive enough to become an attraction itself. Examples included the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile and promotional vehicles used by Red Bull and Liquid Death.

“Don’t be afraid to lean into the absurd with it,” commissioner Coltan Scrivner said. “If you just wrap a van in Eureka Springs, nobody’s really gonna care. If you make it weird and interesting, people will take photos with it, they will share it, it will go viral, it will be free advertising …”

The CAPC’s advertising firm, Madden Media, recently merged with Denver-based Karsh Hagan to form KHM. Maloney said he expects spending with the agency to remain in line with 2026, although some money could be redirected toward public relations.

The CAPC allocated $75,000 to public relations this year, Maloney said.

“If we increase PR, and the aggressiveness of their PR team now with another agency involved in it, Karsh Hagan, that projection could just go out of sight,” he said. “So I am excited about that potential and it’s something that they are aggressive in doing and they’re very good at what they do.”

Maloney said the CAPC likely would seek proposals from other agencies as part of a routine review sometime in 2027.

“But right now we’re pretty comfortable with that relationship and we see no reason to really change it,” he said.

FINANCIAL REPORT

The CAPC had $1,665,000 in the bank as of Sept. 30, Reed reported.

September tax collections totaled $192,000, exceeding the budgeted $190,000. Year-to-date collections were $1,545,000, compared with a budget of $1,472,000.

Total September income matched the budgeted $217,000. Expenses totaled $257,000, exceeding the budgeted $250,000.

August tax collections fell to $175,000 from $201,000 in August 2025, Reed said.

Lodging collections for August were $78,000, compared with $92,000 a year earlier. Cumulative lodging collections were $642,000, compared with $584,000 for the same period last year.

Restaurant collections totaled $97,000 in August, compared with $108,000 a year earlier. Cumulative restaurant collections were $763,000, compared with $742,000 for the same period last year.

OTHER BUSINESS

Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Dallas and Little Rock remain strong sources of traffic to visiteurekasprings.com, Maloney told commissioners. Traffic from St. Louis and Tulsa also is increasing, he said.

In Arkansas, website traffic has been notable from Rogers, Fort Smith, Conway, Bentonville, Springdale, Cabot, Hot Springs, Jonesboro, Bella Vista and North Little Rock.

Maloney said the concentration of interest from Northwest Arkansas points to the importance of visitors making day trips. Central Arkansas and Fort Smith also showed strong interest, with activity increasing in northeast Arkansas, he said.

Maloney highlighted upcoming and recent media coverage of Eureka Springs, including its inclusion in a Southern Living article about 16 Southern train rides. He said representatives of the publication planned to visit the city this week.

Reed reported that Equity Bank won a bid for the CAPC’s banking business and that a $250,000, six-month certificate of deposit had been established.

Maloney also said he had researched the possibility of establishing a welcome center and spoken with people in other Northwest Arkansas communities. He plans to report back with more information.

The commission discussed its lone vacant seat. Maloney said he would circulate an application received a few months earlier. Commissioners also discussed working with the chamber of commerce to notify businesses about the opening.

COMMISSIONER COMMENTS

Scrivner, who organizes the Zombie Crawl and Nightmare in the Ozarks Film Festival, thanked city employees for their help with both events.

“Thanks to public works and the police and fire for wrangling so many people so effectively,” he said.

The film festival drew filmmakers from Los Angeles, Canada, New York and Brazil, Scrivner said. The number of filmmakers attending was at least double last year’s turnout, he said.

“We had people fly in literally from all over the world,” he said.

Most stayed for the entire festival and experienced Zombie Crawl for the first time, Scrivner said.

“That was very cool to see,” he said.