It’s all about the great outdoors in the self-proclaimed Natural State. Capitalising on its rugged mountain ranges, verdant forests and streams, Arkansas earns its tourist dollar with walking, fishing and wildlife spotting (and hunting).
More than 150 Arkansas flights land and depart Little Rock National Airport each day. The capital, Little Rock, has a sedate, small-town feel, although changes are afoot: massive investment has transformed the run-down warehouses of the downtown River Market district into a chic enclave of shiny new restaurants, hotels, museums and shops. It’s also home to the William J. Clinton Presidential Centre and Park, a sleek, space-age tribute to the state’s most famous son, and place of pilgrimage for his loyal supporters.
It’s a world away from the scattered rural villages up in the Ozark Mountains to the north, indelibly associated with hillbillies in the popular imagination – and the birthplace of TV’s Beverley Hillbillies. It’s a stereotype that some locals loathe and others embrace (not to mention exploit, with plenty of purposefully mis-spelt menus and signs to amuse the tourists).
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