Can’t do it alone

It’s no secret that tourism has a huge economic impact on our state. Arkansas Tourism reported that travel alone resulted in $ 429 million in state taxes in 2019.

With the New Year ahead, I believe that nationwide beautification efforts are vital to support our tourism industry.

As The Natural State, Arkansas has a unique reputation for outdoor recreational activities. Whether it’s hiking trails in our national parks, fishing on one of our beautiful rivers, exploring mountaintops in the Ozarks, or exploring the deeply ingrained history of our state at one of our historic sites, we’ve got a little bit of everything, making us unparalleled for the outdoor enthusiast most other states.

Although our state has put a lot of waste prevention, recycling, and beautification into efforts, we still have room for improvement.

Keep America Beautiful found that the United States produced 50 billion pieces of trash in 2020. Of this waste, 24 billion was on roads and 26 billion on waterways.

When visiting major cities across America, one can expect to see trash and trash appearing on the streets, beaches, and other high-traffic areas. However, since Arkansas is known for its outdoor beauty, litter poses an even more dangerous threat to tourism as we work to protect our beautiful natural landscapes.

For many years, the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission (KAB) has been honored with the responsibility of being our state’s premier agency in educating individuals to reduce garbage, recycle, and keep Arkansas beautiful. During this time we have found two main truths in our work: developing strong partnerships with the community is essential to our success, and the best way to reduce waste and promote beautification is to teach our youth great habits.

That is why education is really at the heart of our mission.

As an organization committed to making Arkansas successful in both tourism and the community, we’ve done everything we can to help teachers find unique and engaging ways to teach kids around the state the basics of protecting the environment.

By developing strategic partnerships, we bring our initiatives with the creation of the KAB mascot Otto the Otter and a 40-page children’s book and accompanying workbook directly to schools. Currently we have distributed nearly 50,000 children’s and workbooks to more than 35,000 students across the state.

This year we’re taking the next step in that educational approach with the unveiling of a mural at the eStem Public Charter School in downtown Little Rock. This mural will be a great way to teach kids the importance of trash avoidance and recycling, to teach them good environmental awareness habits that can stay with them into adulthood.

Both youth education and beautification are important aspects of this project. Forbes reported that street art like murals not only enhances the beautification of an area, but can also give a much-needed boost to local businesses and commerce.

Having a lot of support for our local businesses and attractions is imperative in the aftermath of the pandemic. That’s why we’re proud to partner with the Downtown Little Rock Partnership on this important city improvement initiative.

Partnerships like this across the state are vital; Data shows that nationwide beautification efforts improve a state’s economy by increasing tourism, local business revenue, and civic pride, and creating strong communities passionate about preserving their local environment.

While nationwide beautification efforts are key to supporting our tourism industry, we cannot do it alone. Building unique partnerships across the state and attracting volunteers are critical to our work.

We must all be proud of our state and work together to keep Arkansas beautiful.

Mark Camp is the managing director of Keep Arkansas Beautiful (KAB). KAB is a division of the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism and a certified state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful Inc. KAB inspires and trains individuals to reduce waste, recycle, and keep Arkansas beautiful. Learn more at KeepArkansasBeautiful.com.

https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2021/nov/15/cant-do-it-alone/?opinion