Visit Hot Springs rolls out license plate giveaway for fourth year

Visit Hot Springs will give away license plates for the fourth year in a row on Thursday, turning residents’ cars into “rolling billboards” for the Spa City this summer.

Visit Hot Springs will install the free plates on the front bumpers of vehicles at no charge from 7: 30 a. m. to 2 p. m. Thursday in front of the Hot Springs Convention Center.

Visit Hot Springs started the “viral marketing” program in 2009 to use residents’ vehicles to spread the word about Hot Springs as they take their summer vacations.

The plate giveaway has become sort of a pre- travel season tradition as residents gear up for their summer vacations, Visit Hot Springs says.

“The plates will let people know where the drivers are from as they travel inside Arkansas and outside the state this summer,” said Steve Arrison, CEO of Visit Hot Springs.

“This will be a great, inexpensive way for Hot Springs and Garland County residents to let the rest of the country know about their hometown,” he said.

Vehicles must have a front bumper that has pre- drilled holes for placement of a license plate. All drivers have to do is pull up to the front of the convention center during the specified times.

“They won’t even have to get out of the car,” Arrison said. Plates will be available on a firstcome, first- served basis.

The black metal plates feature a shortened version of the city’s teal- and- white logo on the left, and “National Park Arkansas” in raised lettering on the right, with Visit Hot Springs’ tourism website address, hotsprings. org, below.

Each plate costs Visit Hot Springs $ 1.54 to produce.

The plates were introduced less than a year after the U. S. Department of the Interior petitioned, in April 2008, the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission’s use of “Hot Springs National Park Arkansas” on a trademarked logo, saying it was likely to cause “confusion, mistake or deception.”

Visit Hot Springs said at the time that the plates had nothing to do with the logo dispute.

The federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board last year dismissed the petition to cancel the ad commission’s use of “Hot Springs National Park Arkansas” in the trademarked logo.