By ALISON SIDER

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

HOT SPRINGS — A slowdown in travel and state budget cuts have begun to take their toll on the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism.

The governor’s cuts in general revenue have cost the tourism division about $200,000, and collections from the statewide tourism tax, levied on hotels, were about 3.7 percent lower in the first half of this fiscal year compared with the yearearlier period, said tourism division Director Joe David Rice.

Only in the past six or eight months has the Arkansas tourism industry...