Dalaney Thomas, an account manager at the CJRW advertising agency for Arkansas tourism and the Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort, will serve as the new director of tourism at the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Monday.

At a news conference on Monday, Sanders and state and local officials also touted the growth in the state’s tourism industry in calendar year 2022.

“It is easy to forget, but just three years ago the entire tourism industry was on the rocks, shuttered restaurants, empty hotels,” the Republican governor said at the Old Statehouse Museum in Little Rock. “Some were actually saying that our tourism industry would never bounce back from the pandemic, but .. we are back and we are better than ever, thanks to amazing leadership and partnership from many of those of you who are here today.”

Arkansas saw 48.3 million visitors in 2022 — up 17% compared with 2021 — and those visitors spent $9.2 billion while they were in Arkansas in 2022 — up 15% compared with 2021 — Sanders said, citing figures from a state tourism economic impact report based on a study conducted by Tourism Economics. The report said the state had 41.3 million visitors in 2021, who spent $8 billion in Arkansas.

Arkansas’ tourism is the state’s second-largest industry and employs nearly 70,000 workers, she pointed out.

“These numbers are excellent, maybe even tremendous,” Sanders said. “But I know that we can and we will do even better.”

Thomas will start Nov. 1 in her new role as tourism director at the state Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism with a salary of $125,000 a year, department spokesperson Shealyn Sowers said after the news conference. She said Thomas’ last day at CJRW will be Oct. 31.

The tourism director position has been vacant since Travis Napper resigned in June for a job in tourism consulting. Napper’s salary was $126,820 a year when he resigned his position, Sowers said.

She said the department is still determining the process concerning the request for proposals for the department’s advertising and marketing contract that expires June 30, 2024, and Thomas will be excluded from the request for proposal process. CJRW has the existing contract, she said.

Thomas has served as a senior account manager at CJRW since December 2018 and previously served as an account executive from June 2015 to December 2018, according to her resume. She received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Ouachita Baptist University in 2015 with a minor in business administration.

At the news conference, Sanders said Thomas “is about to help us to take Arkansas tourism to the next level.”

“Dalaney has spent nearly a decade working with Arkansas tourism from the outside, brainstorming new ideas to get the word out about our state,” Sanders said. “She spearheaded nationwide marketing campaigns, [and] has the creative chops that we’ll need to compete with other states. Dalaney joins an incredible team that is going to help us take Arkansas to the top.”

Thomas said she is humbled and honored to step into her new role for the state’s tourism industry.

“I look forward to working together to grow Arkansas’ second-largest industry and to continue to establish the Natural State as a national leader in outdoor recreation,” she said. “I am also excited to continue to tell Arkansas’ amazing story to audiences across the country and the world.

“I love the hospitality and tourism industry, and I have a deep appreciation for what our destinations do, our outfitters, and our front-line workers, what they do every single day to make sure our visitors have the best, most memorable experience possible,” Thomas said.

As a southern state, “I believe that hospitality is in our DNA and our competitive nature probably runs deeper than the Arkansas River,” she said.

Sander said her administration is making “sweeping reforms to make our outdoor spaces even better.”

She said her husband, first gentleman Bryan Sanders, huddled with experts in the public and private sector to help come up with new ways to improve Arkansas’ outdoor economy and their solutions passed overwhelmingly in the Legislature during the 2023 regular session and already are starting to making a difference.

“We cut red tape at state parks to make maintenance and lodging better and more sequenced,” Sanders said. “We funded grant programs to support high-impact recreation projects in small towns all across the state, and we are supporting entrepreneurs who are innovating in everything from food to lodging to guide services, and the Sanders’ family favorite — we are launching a lifetime hunting and fishing license that Arkansans younger than 10 can get for half off. Just a little disappointed we didn’t do it sooner because only two of our three kids qualify.

“But you pair this with all the progress going on in the private sector and nonprofit spaces, you have an absolute recipe for success,” she said.

State Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism Secretary Shea Lewis said the total number of visitors to Arkansas in 2022 of 48.3 million represents a 27% increase over pre-covid levels in 2019. The number of visitors totaled 32.9 million in 2018, 36.3 million in 2019, 29.2 million in 2020 and 41.3 million in 2021, according to the department’s report.

He cited a few reasons for the increased number of visitors to Arkansas since the pandemic.

“We have really leaned into digital marketing, which allows us to target key audiences across the nation and around the world to maximize our reach and help us optimize future campaigns,” Lewis said.

“Secondly, something that we know for sure is that a lot of visitors found us during the pandemic,” she said. “What we are known as the Natural State really came true and relevant during the pandemic [and] that helped many people gain a greater appreciation for the beautiful outdoors that we have, which continues today and what Arkansas has in abundance.”

Lewis said direct visitors spent $9.2 billion in Arkansas in 2022, and that exceeds by a $1 billion the pre-covid 2019 numbers.

“The highest spend categories for visitors were in transportation, food and lodging,” he said. “Lodging, as a matter of fact, accounted for the largest increase in visitor spend with a year over year increase of 23%. That is great news for an industry sector which took a financial hit during the [pandemic].”

Lewis said the tourism industry also has indirect and induced effects on the economy, which totaled $6.5 billion in 2022.

“That’s money put back into the economy by industry operators when buying goods and services, and by industry employees who are investing their wages where they live,” he said. “When combining direct visitor spend with indirect and induced impact the total effect is $15.7 billion.”

The tourism industry generated $536 million in state taxes and $216 million in county and municipal taxes in 2022, Lewis said. The state’s 2% tourism tax raised $24.3 million in 2022 to fund the state’s tourism marketing efforts, he said.

Arkansas’ tourism industry employed 68,100 employees in 2022, which represents 3.9% of employment in Arkansas, he said.

Lewis said Pulaski County, Benton County, Garland, Washington and Sebastian counties are Arkansas’ top five counties when it comes to where visitors spend their money in Arkansas.

He said Pulaski County generated $1.9 billion in visitor spending, Benton County generated a little more than $1 billion, Garland County generated $840 million, Washington County generated $709 million, and Sebastian County $401 million in 2022.

“The bottom line is that Arkansas’ tourism industry has never been stronger,” Lewis said.