A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

How A Small City Earned Global Headlines

• Visit Bentonville • Season 19 • Episode 50

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We sit down with Alison Nation, CMO of Visit Bentonville, to trace how a small city stitched together art, trails, wellness, and hospitality into a destination that keeps turning editors’ heads from New York to London.

Crystal Bridges fuels the cultural surge with a major expansion that doubles gallery space. The Compton brings fresh momentum to the downtown hotel scene, while 8th Street Gateway Park strengthens a car-light loop that moves from Razorback Greenway to Applegate Trail and up to Coler Mountain Bike Preserve. With USA Cycling training here and local trail builders shaping projects heading into LA28, Bentonville’s outdoor credibility is real.

Looking ahead, we map 2026 goals: hosting writers, curating e-bike tours, and partnering on exhibition openings to build itineraries that show the city’s full range. Along the way, Alison shares local favorites—greenway strolls, experimental installations at The Momentary, and essential ice cream stops—that explain why visitors arrive curious and leave attached. If you’ve been watching the headlines and wondering what changed, this is the episode for you.

A New American Town is here to help you plan your trip to Bentonville, Arkansas. From guides, events, and restaurant highlights. Find all this and more at visitbentonville.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and LinkedIn.

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Beth Bobbitt:

Welcome back to a new American town. I'm here with Allison Nation, Chief Marketing Officer with Visit Bittenville, and we're going to talk about Bentonville in the headlines. So exciting. Woo! Hi. Hello. So we are seeing Bittenville everywhere these days. Travel and leisure, the New York Times, Today Show. What is happening? Oh my gosh.

Alison Nation:

Well, if you live here, you've visited lately, you know that there is a lot happening in Bentonville. There's a lot of awesome construction projects, and we'll talk more about that later. But what's happening is we're at this perfect moment from 2025 into 2026 for all of the major travel publications to include our city and what they're sharing. And so it's been so gratifying to see how publishers and editors are seeing so much value and interest in Bentonville that they're willing to share it with their global readership.

Beth Bobbitt:

I mean, it's hard to ignore. And so I feel like this bubbling up has been happening for a while. Why, why now? Why do you think we're getting so much national attention? And what does that mean for the residents?

Alison Nation:

Well, you cannot minimize the importance of what's happening at Crystal Bridges. A beautiful art museum that's only been open since 2011, saying uh we're gonna double our footprint to increase our mission, ability to fulfill our mission. So doubling their gallery space and maintaining free admission, increasing their temporary exhibition program, uh, increasing their public art making spaces. I mean, I don't want to talk too much about it because we want to have them on the podcast, the Crystal Bridges team, to tell us about everything in store. But that is big news for the art world and for arts and culture travelers. So these publications from HuffPost to Conde Nash Traveler, you know, they they were excited to hear about it. We also have the Compton, the new hotel on the square that was much anticipated and was included in several kind of hotel-focused roundups with global hotel chains and major boutique hotels opening from Dubai to to Bentonville. So that um that was big news for folks. And and I think we're also starting to really be known as this, you know, cycling and outdoor recreation destination. What's happening with LA 28, where a Bentonville-based trail builder, progressive trail design, is building trail in California and the USA cycling team training here. I think that's starting to help people see another level of the quality of our trails and our parks, our city parks. So 8th Street Gateway Park is going to be transformational for our kind of e-bike greenway loop. You can do from the Razorback Greenway to the 8th Street Greenway, going through 8th Street Gateway Park. You can hit the Applegate Trail and go up Coler. So there's so many layers of what's developing here that will be opening in 2026 and really enrich the experience that folks can have.

Beth Bobbitt:

And thinking about like the outdoor recreational aspect of it that bleeds into health and wellness, of course. So true.

Alison Nation:

Yeah, Heartland Whole Health Institute's open and Alice Walton School of Medicine has opened. So those are also big factors.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, and I mean, truly becoming this tourist destination. People say it nonchalantly, but it hasn't always been the case. And just the other day I heard my doctor say, I asked him why he moved to Bentonville, and he said, because my wife and my kids and I came here on vacation. I mean, just to hear that, you know, like that is such a source of like pride and joy for this community now to that place where they fall in love.

Alison Nation:

Right. Some of this uh press, you know, I hope it helps foster that community pride for locals and maybe see their city or their hometown in a new light for folks that don't go to Crystal Bridges that often, or maybe only when someone comes to visit. There's new art on view all the time. And once this expansion's complete and open, there'll be new art and installations and acquisitions we've never seen. And we're excited to help tell that story.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah. Yeah, it's very exciting for residents. And I know you get asked this a lot, but how are we balancing, attracting visitors while maintaining the quality of life for our current residents?

Alison Nation:

Yeah, that's a big part of our strategic vision for Visit Bentonville, the work we do in tourism, and our CEO Kaylene Griffith is very passionate about it. We're in the process of completing a destination master plan with an outside group called Hyden Partners. So that's a strategic months-long process to evaluate our city and what's happening in our tourism sectors and see how to grow or pace or what we can improve and plan around. So I think one of the main factors that I love about Visit Bentonville is in our city, our tourism dollars that we collect at the advertising and promotion commission tax, those dollars fund quality of life improvements. Things like Lawrence Plaza, Memorial Park improvements, the Phillips Park expansion, the downtown promenade. Tourist dollars are being collected by us. They're funding our promotions, but they're also funding parks, projects, and city facilities. The Bentonville Public Library has a space that we helped fund. So we are always giving back to the community and funding things that can improve our quality of life. Yeah.

Beth Bobbitt:

And people are noticing and picking up on this and sharing it. I love that. From Visit Bentonville's perspective, it must be thrilling to see these headlines and get these accolades. In your in your mind, how did we get here?

Alison Nation:

Well, this is from years-long strategic planning and work. Headlines like that don't happen by chance. And it's one aspect of the work I do for our city that I am so proud of and I truly love. You know, I've been with Visit Bentonville almost three years. And from my first spring on the team, I started attending travel media marketplaces. And so I want to talk a little bit about the layers that go into all of this media awareness and this headlines. So there's lots of lots of layers. So, one, we do pitch journalists and we do receive requests from journalists, just like cold calls and emails. I'm interested in your city, I want to come out and see what it's about, or can you send me images because I'm including you in my article? Like that happens all day, every day, as I'm sure it happens at the PR teams for Crystal Bridges and other entities. So we have strategic partnerships. Madden PR is a wonderful uh agency who supports us on our national pitching, and we've been working with them throughout all of 2025. We also work frequently with the state, our Arkansas Tourism Department, as well as every attraction and entity in Bentonville who wants to collaborate with us. 21C Museum Hotel, The Compton, Crystal Bridges, The Momentary. If folks are working on a story they want to share, we want to work with them. What might that collaboration look like? Well, often it looks like the museum PR team doing a press preview for an exhibition and bringing in a group of journalists and saying, Hey, can you help us with some travel uh or finding a hotel that could give us a great rate for this journalist? And we have dollars set aside in our budget to help support these initiatives. So we have to say yes. And then we love to help create an itinerary for that journalist that gets them at the museum, but also experiencing our trails, our restaurants. So uh last year, John Oside with Forbes came to town and I spent a day and a half with him riding bikes and going to the airship at Kohler and just making sure that that journalists see the full picture of Bentonville outside of the walls of one particular location. Tough job that somebody's got to do. I know it's and I have to say, travel writers are some of the most interesting people because they've traveled the world, they've seen everything. And there is nothing more gratifying in my job than seeing a travel writer who's been everywhere say, This town is amazing and really find the magic that we have. We also do, let's see, I talked a little bit about the media marketplaces. And one thing that I think is interesting is this is a long game. So we uh went to the Travel South, which is a travel association focused on the southern states. We went to their global media marketplace a few years back, and I met the editor for the American section of the independent UK, Annabelle Grossman. That was her beat at the time, and she said, you know, I want someone to come out there. So she connected us with Ellie Seymour. She commissioned Ellie Seymour to write an article, and Ellie said, Well, how can you help me get to Bentonville and across Arkansas to write articles about the experience there for our British and our various travel readers? So we worked with the state of Arkansas, Travel South, the association, and of course our own, our own budget to bring in Ellie and have her have this experience. And now we've had a major feature in The Independent, as well as several other British publications. And frankly, she writes me, we still talk on WhatsApp and connect on topics around Bentonville, because when a journalist comes here and they see all of the things to do, they they just make a list and they'll start pitching on Walmart Museum or they'll pitch on the trails or the food. So recently we had a feature in um Food and Wine about cocktail, like escape the cold at the country's most convincing tropical bar. So you can guess Callisto was featured in that. So we love to build these relationships with journalists and really help them stay in touch. And our team at Madden really helps us do that. And I can't say enough about our partner organizations. Collaborating and staying connected is key. We were able to get a feature about America 250 in a FAR travel magazine. They were able to mention the Crystal Bridges exhibition opening in March in their recent article because the museum team gave us advanced info, you know, before it was published. Right. We had the privilege of knowing what exhibitions were coming so that we could pitch under embargo to journalists and have them included. And so that trust and relationship is so key.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah. And I think about, you know, we talked a little bit about these headlines being such a source of pride, but it's also you don't see the numbers. I mean, this is a big impact. Some of these circulation numbers are like hundreds of thousands, let alone the online sharing capacity. Um, you know, just seeing and thinking about all the eyeballs that are reading about Bitonville for the first time in UK or beyond, it's incredible. And do you see the other side of that? Do you see the, you know, do you get the reward of having someone say, I saw this and I came here, you know?

Alison Nation:

Is that does that happen? It happens. And I'm looking forward to when we start to see those travelers mention these headlines. So far, I feel like we hear more about some of that I hear are things like, Oh, I saw you on CBS Sunday morning. So some of the coverage Crystal Bridges has had over the years, or even Seth Alvo of Burn Peak, a mountain bike YouTube expert. He's been in Bentonville multiple times, and we always hear folks talking about that video or his series of videos. So it is, it's very gratifying, and we we love to see it. And our website has the highest source of traffic, is organic search. So people see these articles, they hear about us, and they file it away and then they look us up later on.

Beth Bobbitt:

And so all of that that you're talking about on the PR front, that's earned media, what are you doing on the paid media side to sort of boost these efforts or compliment?

Alison Nation:

We have a comprehensive digital marketing program. We run on Google uh search engine marketing. We have near me marketing. So folks that are in town saying, What's what restaurants are near me? We're hoping to send them to Bentonville. We also do ads on Facebook and Instagram. So uh pretty standard storytelling helping to get people in our drive market and some direct flight cities, um, keep us top of mind for them. Yeah, yeah.

Beth Bobbitt:

That's really interesting. Of course, it's interesting to me. I'm kind of nerding out on yeah.

Alison Nation:

I thought we could have fun with this.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I am curious what you're working on now, what's ahead for 2026, either on the PR front in terms of pitching or new programs, initiatives? I have some goals.

Alison Nation:

I would love to host travel writers or or journalists in each of our downtown hotels. Uh we also have had some interest in camping at Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve. And anytime we can send someone to the bike inn, they have a great time. So, really working on finding some journalists that are interested in experiencing the full breadth of Bentonville, hopping on a bike, getting around town. We're we're talking with Crystal Bridges about some of their PR work, helping them with the exhibit the expansion opening and other exhibition openings to help welcome and build out itineraries. We're working with the state. They've got several, uh, what is it's called a fam tour, familiarity tour for journalists in the next few months, like big groups of five to ten people that will be working on uh securing some e-bikes for them to ride and cruise the trail and a big posse of trouble riders. Uh it's fun when when folks go rogue and we find them later at Wright's barbecue. Like, well, I I didn't like the lunch on the itinerary, and I had to try this prime rib. Like, you know, it's it's really uh fun when folks have a their own idea from their own research of what they want to see in Bentonville.

Beth Bobbitt:

So I bet that's cool for you to be able to see it through their eyes too. You know, you're experiencing all of this with them.

Alison Nation:

And I mean, it's wild to try to set out from, say, the square and go all the way to Crystal Bridges and not stop to talk about Lawrence Plaza or uh an artwork installed at Compton Gardens or the spring on the way through Compton Gardens or James Terrell.

Beth Bobbitt:

Exactly.

Alison Nation:

There's so many things to see, and I think it's one of the reasons why they are kind of a gog by the end of the day because they they did see so much and we we pack it in.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, that's gotta be so rewarding. Uh how can we as just supporters, community residents I guess celebrate and amplify the success of some of these stories and headlines?

Alison Nation:

Oh gosh. Well, I think I would love to see folks kind of make sure they experience it for themselves too, you know, just in case someone, a friend or colleague from out of town says, I saw that. Why why would that be so? You you can be educated on why from your direct experience?

Beth Bobbitt:

Like well, and just thinking about like literally sharing the headlines but also experiencing for themselves, I think is is a great way. Okay, so off the clock. You're turning in your badge for a moment. Tell us about your favorite things to do in Bitonville.

Alison Nation:

Well, in the summer and seasonable weather, I love to park somewhere in town, either the north end of the greenway or in the heart of the town, and just walk my dog on the greenway for hours. You know, just toodle along and enjoy the artwork and grab a iced coffee somewhere. Um in cooler weather, uh just this last weekend, we went out to the momentary and tried out their temporary experience called Firebird, which it closes on February 15th. So if you're listening to this, get on down there. So it's free to go to the momentary and see the art they have on view. And with my two sons, uh, it's just such a delight to be able to expose them to things like that. So we like to go and look at art and then hopefully stop at an ice cream shop. We have lots of outstanding ice cream in our city. Clementine's just opened, and so we we stopped there after Firebird this last weekend, which was truly delicious.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yes, I love watching everything you guys do. You're such an adventurous family. Thanks. Okay, anything else you want to talk about?

Alison Nation:

I just yeah, I'm I'm just so excited for folks to uh to get out. And I hope I hope if folks have not ridden a bike in Bentonville to give it a chance. We'll have some episodes with uh Craig from Scott Adventure Lab coming out soon, and that's just one of the many bike shops where you can rent an outstanding e-bike, and there's there's really nothing to compare. I mean, there's lots of wonderful things, but I have found such nostalgia and joy in biking in this city on the greenway, or from my office to a meeting or to lunch across across a few streets, you know, just down around town. So take advantage of this destination you're in.

Beth Bobbitt:

And yeah, and we are becoming so bikeable, so it's a nice plug for all the work that's been done, all the progress that's been made that way. So thank you. Thank you, Alison, for coming on. This was fun. Ready to explore Bentonville? Check out visitbentonville.com for dining guides, event calendars, and trip planning tools. Follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter. Links are in the show notes. Thanks for listening to a new American town.