Longtime NTA member Clayton Whitehead (Sports Leisure Vacations) wanted to offer his clients a view of the 2024 total eclipse, a quest that began after Clayton experienced a similar event in 2017.
“It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life,” he says. “When I learned the next one was happening over the U.S. in April this year, I jumped on it early, using the NTA conventions in Cleveland and Reno (in 2021 and 2022) to talk to DMOs located along the path of totality.”
After gathering ideas for a group-friendly itinerary, he narrowed the options for his clients who had expressed an interest. Then he did what people do in an election year: He put it to a vote. The winner was Little Rock, Arkansas.
For eclipse day, Clayton partnered with a local tour company that organized a viewing at a farm/event venue that included a BBQ lunch, wine tastings, hayrides, and live music. Clayton and other tour operators gave the program enough participants for a buyout of the venue.
There was still a good bit of work for Clayton to do, though. The totality of the eclipse would take up only three and a half minutes of a seven-day trip—and there was always the possibility of a cloudy or, worse, a rainy day.
“A hedge against possible bad weather in Arkansas was to give my group the state’s newest and best attractions,” he says.
Clayton’s itinerary included visits to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville and the new U.S. Marshals Museum in Ft. Smith, plus a Route 66-themed dinner spot and museums that focused on Bill Clinton, Will Rogers, and Native American history.
“I fully planned and priced the tour and rolled it out. The trip sold out in minutes,” he says.
With a waitlist of more than 50 people in hand, Clayton spoke to the event organizers, who told him “the more the merrier.” So Clayton gathered more and flew from Sacramento to Arkansas with two full tours.
That’s him pictured above in the dark shirt, standing among his guests and soaking up the experience on an Arkansas day that was bright and sunny … except for three and a half minutes.
