ElvisLuv

Yes and no. It's just that there's just so much real time info available to us and the reach if the info is far greater than it has ever been with social media and the media sites seeking hits via those for revenue. Reality has been skewed.

Louisiana and then the whole Redneck Riviera and Texas border regions then the rest of Florida and now the South. But yes, the first spot that lit up like Rudolph's nose was the Table Rock/Bull Shoals/Norfork Lake regions of the Ozarks and it has spread out from there. There is a clear correlation to vacationing hot spots likely spread by asymptomatic breakthrough cases living life normally. It just happens it was to areas where folks are resistant to vaccines.

Incidentally, I was at the park on Sunday(8-22). There had to be no more than 3k at the park all day. Outside of Time Traveler and Mystic River there were hardly any wait times unless you want the front and it was only two or three trains. All coasters ran and all day at that. It was hot and the air wasn't moving much. But we first rowed ever coaster twice except for Time Traveler , we gotblucky and was assigned first and a last row on our 4 overall rides. Covid Notes, Less than 10% were masked. Hell, I doubt 5%. The Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas was ground zero for the Delta strain explosion. It has peaked but just now starting to fall a bit. Most all employee were but there were a few not. Mainly those that don't interact with guests or do so from a good distance.

NWA consist of the core 4 of Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Bentonville along with Bella Vista and Siloam Springs. Other cities in the two county region like Farmington and Prarie Grove are growing as well. You can consider the Jonesboro/Paragould area a core SDC market as well but a lot of their growth is at the cost of the surrounding small, more rural communities. The truth is that there's nearly two years more growth on these numbers for NWA. It has only excelerated since.

Air service is rapidly expanding in this area. Destin got Allegiant several years ago and has been growing since. Now Southwest has entered Destin. Next up is Gulf Shores, they are building a terminal and will surely land a LCC "Allegiant" type carrier.

Yes Downtown Memphis nothing into this. This is actually fairly easy access to the areas that matter. North Ms and East of Memphis TN. A combination of the new outerloop of I-269, I-22, I-55 and the section I-69 complete makes this easily reached without ever hitting Memphis proper. Only Arkansans will have to deal with Memphis proper. This is clearly being eared toward multiple night stays. The old weekend getaway you might say. At 3 or less hrs drive, there's nearly 4 million people. Outside of the Memphis area and it's 1.4 million there's Little Rock AR Jackson MS Jackson TN Jonesboro/Paragould TN Tupelo/Corinth MS You stretch that out to 5 hrs you start including places like Nashville, Birmingham, Hunstville, Chattanooga. Memphis, itself (before Covid) had been increasingly attracting weekend stays. It has an incredible zoo. Even with Covid, it's hotel occupancy rate has healthily outpaced the national average. There's nothing close to this in the area. Any water park is 3hrs or more. I have been searching for plans and some artwork for this. What I have found still lacks an indoor water park element. I consider that a major mistake. The athletic complex, done right I'm sure will host numerous youth baseball/softball tourneys and make money hand over fist and provide a stream for lodging. If I was a Fun Spot, I'd be eying a location either near here or close by at the i-69/I-55 junction near the Tanger Outlet Mall. The area is coaster deprived. A couple of pics I've found.

https://dailymemphian.com/section/business/article/21025/harrahs-tunica-site-redevelopent-resort-water-park This site is massive. Two huge hotels and once Championship quality golf course the building for the F.E.C is already on property. All of these are visible from the screen grab from Google Earth. Just Google image search Harrah's Tunica Resort for more photos. If this doesn't include an indoor water facility they are wasting time. Hopefully it leads to a dry park in a dry part of the country themepark wise. That I-69 has Birmingham less than 3 hrs east and Atlanta in under 6 hrs for weekend getaways. Now, if Memphis would redevelop Mud Island into a Tivoli-esque park

XNA was the Secind fastest growing airport in the US in 2019, pre covid clocking in at 17% year over year and was clocking 20% over that the first two months of 2020 before Covid. It is double the size of Springfield in terms of passengers. Not knocking Springfield I wish we had their amount of Allegaint destinations as well. I would not be shocked by this time next year Allegiant is flying to Knoxville from one or both of them. That would basically connect SDC and Dollywood for passholders. SDC might explore a better package outside of the 50% discount. Springfield put in a grant to help start AA service to DC, Philly and/or Miami. NWA gets DC and Miami back in April via AA.

The amount of construction and housing starts in this area has electricians and plumbers pulling down high 100K wages. NWA is seeing all kinds of service and professional career growth. This area will likely be gaining two full fledged Med Schools in 10 years. One will be a private one founded and funded by Alice Walton and UAMS is moving toward a full fledged center like Little Rock. It should be noted that Arvest was Alice's brother Rob's creation. This is good news as well. Looks like XNA is in Jet Blue's Founder's crosshairs for his new Breeze Airline. Which could help folk travel to SDC a bit cheaper.

It is what it is, lol https://nwacouncil.org/2019/11/22/benton-county-wages-grow-163-labor-bureau-reports/ All good news for SDC.

Arvest is based in Northwest Arkansas and was started by a Walton of Walmart fame. It is a huge regional bank around here flush with capital and big time backing. This brings me to NWA and Silver Dollar City. Northwest Arkansas is on track to nearly double in size by 2045. That means around 1 million in population. Nice to have one of the fastest growing and increasingly affluent regions in the country in your back yard so to speak. Springfield is also growing but it is not the juggernaut that NWA has become.

Hot Springs has tons of potential but has seemingly failed to truly capitalize on it. Historic downtown renovation of hotels and such should be tied to gaming permits to help fund it with stipulations for historic accuracy. Instead Oaklawn has a monopoly on gaming in town. The trade off should be allowing Oaklawn to host fall horse meets so that it can become part of the Breeder's Cup. If I could get a hold of Magic Springs, I would attach a hotel with an indoor Waterpark on it in a heartbeat and expand the operating season of the dry park to where it is open on the last three weekends of Oaklawn's early meet. You would be shocked at the families that go down there for the races. It is set up as a perfect cabin fever getaway location to the Metroplex and places like Memphis and Northwest Arkansas. It needs some investment that's for sure

That's rich. Arkansas isn't going to tell them to stay closed, lol. The Gov pretty much ended all restrictions on Friday except the mask policy and it's on it's last leg. Restaurants were packed out all weekend.

It is missing shooting up the waterfall and feeling the mist that Taron has. If I found a Genie in a bottle and my first wish was for more wishes. After wishing for health and wealth, one of them would be Phantasialand opening up a US park using the basic principles they have there, integrated hotels in highly themed areas. An Epcot World Showcase with thrill rides and in park hotels, yeah that's the ticket.

Oh geez, I've been to Puy du Fou so I'll go with the Efteling's Ravelejn done in partnership with Puy du Fou, lol. We liked many mention though. Waterworld Lights, camera..... Festival of the Lion King