New Orleans´s Travel industry Pleads for Normality

Since hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau (NOCVB) with the government and business leaders have vowed to put New Orleans back on the tourism map. In fact, historic structures around the French Quarter and tourist areas like the CBD, Warehouse and Arts District, Garden District and Algiers have remained dry and suffered the lightest damage.

Most of the city´s historic homes and buildings remain intact. Six months after Katrina, New Orleans old town and the main tourist districts celebrated the 150th anniversary of Mardi Gras and provided an ideal opportunity to take stock of the situation.

New Orleans´s city center has steadily recovered with over 80 percent of all hotel rooms open again (approximately 25,000) as well as all major museums and some 80 restaurants. The latest reopening was the New Orleans Museum of Art on 3 March, with a grand tribute to the arts called “The HeART of New Orleans.”

Most U.S. carriers have already resumed their operations at New Orleans airport. In 2003, according to the latest available figures from the NOCVB, total visitors reached 10.1 million, generating an expenditure of $4.9 billion.

According to J. Stephen Perry, President of the NOCVB, the city lost $3.5 billion in revenues from meetings held somewhere else between August and the end of 2005.