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Catholic High grad a natural to lead Parks and Tourism

Kane Webb says national marketing campaign for state tourism to launch this year

Published: April 21, 2016   

By Dwain Hebda
Little Rock Correspondent

Dwain Hebda
Catholic High grad Kane Webb greets visitors at Arkansas Parks and Tourism headquarters in Little Rock. The product of Immaculate Conception Church and School was appointed to the job by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

Kane Webb never tires of Arkansas outdoors. The Sherwood native who grew up in the Immaculate Conception Church and School was frequently outdoors during his youth and now that he’s a husband with a daughter of his own, he’s still an outdoor enthusiast, having drifted to mountain biking as a favorite pursuit along Arkansas cycling trails.

About the only thing related to the outdoors that the new director for Arkansas Parks and Tourism doesn’t like to hear about the state’s natural beauty is how few people know about it, especially native Arkansans.

“Everyone talks about what we take for granted here in Arkansas and I guess that’s true to some extent,” he said. “But I would also say that for the most part, Arkansans are really knowledgeable about what we have here and they take advantage of it more often than not.

“I’m kind of tired of hearing that Arkansas is one of the best kept secrets in the country. If the best barometer of how we’re doing is the number of visitors, that’s been through the roof this year.”

“If the best barometer of how we’re doing is the number of visitors, that’s been through the roof this year.” Kane Webb, director of Arkansas Parks and Tourism

The 1982 Catholic High grad took over the director’s chair in December, succeeding Richard Davies who had been in the job for 27 of his 42 years in the department. Among Davies’ accomplishments during that period was lobbying for the passage of a 1/8 cent conservation tax that subsequently funded four departments, including his own.

Today, Webb is putting such funds to use with a national advertising campaign seeking to lure more out-of-state visitors to the Natural State.

“By and large, the majority of our visitors come from neighboring states with Texas being the biggest but then also Missouri, Tennessee and Oklahoma; that’s our bread and butter,” he said. “We think of it like there’s an egg around Arkansas and our goal is to expand that egg.

“Marketing to your own citizens comes down to having a great system of state parks, which we do, but as far as tourism goes, of course you want to bring people in because they spend more money staying in hotels. The marketing we are launching is our first national marketing campaign ever and you’ll see that a little later this year.”

Webb not only wants to expand the states of origin for Arkansas visitors, we wants to broaden the demographic of tourists, too. He’s not alone in that goal, either.

“The market everyone is going after is the millennials (usually defined as people born between 1980 and 1995),” he said. “They approach things much differently; they like adventure and they want to do things. They also aren’t hung up on owning a car or a house and so they don’t mind biking and backpacking cross-country. They’re not thrill-seekers, but they are experience-seekers. It’s a very interesting group.”

As for Webb’s aforementioned fascination with mountain biking, he said biking tours and biking adventures — both the pedaled and the motorized variety — hold great potential for attracting a wide range of tourists.

“You know, people my age used to jog and run and then they got bad knees and bad backs and they started riding bikes and motorcycles,” said the 52-year old. “Arkansas is built for that; our geography makes us a great trail state and we also have wonderful patrons like the Walton Foundation building the Razorback Greenway for that very purpose.

“I really think we can be a national leader in tourism, especially when it comes to certain niche markets that have emerged such as motorcycle tourism and mountain and road biking, which is something that appeals both to people 50-plus and to millennials.”

Webb, a graduate of the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism, was appointed to the director’s job by Gov. Asa Hutchinson after serving as his senior advisor, specializing in speechwriting and written communications. During his journalism career, he worked for papers in New Orleans, Minneapolis, Louisville, Ky., and on the editorial page of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Arkansas Business. He also taught at Catholic High for a short time.

He and his wife Fran have one daughter, Gracie, a freshman at Mount St. Mary Academy. The family today splits their time between their home parish, Our Lady of the Holy Souls Church and Christ the King Church.

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