Tourism Survey for Adventure Sports

[ARStateParks]

If you have a chance please fill out the survey below. It is something that Arkansas Department of Parks & Tourism is doing to get a better idea of adventure sports participation in Arkansas. Thanks for your time.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/AdventureSportsADPT" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[fryingsquirrel]

Survey complete.
Do I get a sticker???
Jon Ellwood

[robkanraft]

[quote]"help in statewide promotions of adventure sports events, tourism and sponsorship marketing in an effort to make Arkansas an Adventure Sports destination for events and vacations."[/quote]

At the risk of sounding crabby, and I may well have missed the point here... but it seems to me most “adventure sports” (and I dislike the term) enthusiasts run in well-connected circles and already know of their desired destinations, no promotion needed. Likewise, they communicate, recruit and teach their various skill sets and thus in my mind there is an adequate supply of campers, fishermen, paddlers bikers and such who already know where they want to go.

I unhappily recall a certain movie involving fly fishing and suddenly everybody wanted to be one, and Arkansas trout rivers and regulations weren’t in place (and to this day remain a long way from ideal) and the rivers suffered from all of those folks who “discovered” the adventure. Same analogy could also be applied for river running, rock climbing etc.

I’d rather see public money proposed to be spent promoting adventure sports within the state be used for conservation purposes. It seems to me that long term, protecting, hanging on to, and possibly expanding recreational lands and access to them will produce plenty of consumers/tourists.

All said, I took the survey and hope any economic information gleamed from it will be used more to promote better use of resources, rather than just exploiting them.

[raysuf]

This seems like a noble effort. I completed the survey. I thought the survey was pretty comprehensive without being laborious.

As far as the nomenclature of the sports they are describing at least they didn't call them Extreme Sports. Adventure Sports is pretty respectable description.

[shelbyjohnson]

Here's a closing idea that you can put into the last entry on the survey for our consideration.

Ask them to sponsor more stream gauges, and partner with the USGS to build a social media tool that would Tweet or Facebook when your favorite creek got above a certain level. And while they are at it work with the National Park Service to resurrect the Buffalo Watershed rain gauges that were online and updating every half hour. Those were golden nuggets of information during a rain event.

Our whitewater is rain dependent and so having that rain and stream level information is pivotal to folks deciding whether or not to go paddling.

[RandyJ]

Shelby, GREAT idea. Done.

[T Yamashita]

2X on what shelby said!
ty

[shelbyjohnson]

I should have also said Big THANKS to ARStateParks for bringing this survey to our attention. Thank you, thank you and thank you.

[Roger]

I should have also said Big THANKS to ARStateParks for bringing this survey to our attention. Thank you, thank you and thank you.

Naw, thank YOU!!!!

[bryanpin]

the buffalo river guages were a huge loss. i still cry sometimes

what a great tool that the taxpaying boaters of arkansas deserve! gimme back my guages!

survey completed with a more tactful statement than the above echoing Shelby's idea with my own feelings and opinions too. but seriously, gimme back my gauges....