CABOT, Ark. — We're now less than a year away from a solar eclipse. and two-thirds of the state will be in the path of totality.
The event is expected to bring people from around the world to the Natural State, so that's why Arkansas Tourism has been traveling around the state to prepare cities in the totality path.
"The experts are telling us to expect at least half of our population visitors during that time," President and CEO of Cabot Chamber, Gina Jones said.
That comes out to around 14,000 visitors in the city of Cabot.
Jones explained that the meeting with Arkansas Tourism on Monday morning helped them prepare for what is to come.
"We just want to make sure and bring awareness to this. We don't want people to take it lightly. It can be a huge thing for Cabot and all of Arkansas really," Jones said.
She also said it could be a huge boost for businesses in the city too.
"We're excited about it and can't wait to see what happens," she added.
Jessica Ledbetter with Arkansas Tourism said most campsites are already fully booked a year in advance and hotels have started to fill up.
"We're really seeing numbers already starting to come in. We're seeing, you know, conventions and tour companies and things like that, putting their names on the books for really big groups to come into Arkansas," Ledbetter said.
That includes people from other countries.
"In two weeks, I'm actually doing a site visit all across the state with a tour operator from the United Kingdom, who wants to come in and stay in Arkansas and she's just trying to pick the perfect place," Ledbetter described.
Arkansas Tourism is preparing for hundreds of thousands— maybe even a million visitors to come see the Eclipse in Arkansas.
Ledbetter said the next steps are to work with ARDOT and utility companies to figure out some logistics leading up to the big day.
"You don't want the sun to go down and all of your lights to be on an automatic dimmer where when the lights go off when the sun goes down, your lights come on," she said.
Managing traffic will also be a big priority.
"We don't want them to have to just park on the side of the road and watch the eclipse overhead and then be stuck in traffic. So we want everywhere in Arkansas to be aware that, hey, this is coming, and you should be prepared for it," she described.
Jones said the chamber has been looking to have some kind of special eclipse event, but there are no details on what that would look like just yet.
You can learn more about the eclipse in Arkansas here.