Katrina:tourism

image courtesy LBnuke

Because tourism had been the saving grace of the New Orleans economy, we will first take a look at Katrina's effect on the tourism and convention industry.

NOLA had been pulling in nearly $5 billion a year from visitors, 40 percent being from convention and meeting business. By the time Katrina occurred, it was the number one industry, with 81,000 jobs in the service sector supporting the industry. It is estimated that half a billion dollars were lost in revenue for each month that NOLA was inoperable. The majority of the hotels were left vacant or nearly so for nearly six months after NOLA. The city was lucky that its main business districts, such as the French Quarter, were able to return to a state of operation more quickly than the rest of the more affected parts of the city (many of which are still inoperable).

The main problem now is the labor force and small business owners who lost homes.

Currently officials are pushing to allocate $50 million toward reconstructing the tourism industry, but according to a CivicTourism blog post, there is a fear it will be spent on advertising, the industry prematurely claiming to the rest of the country that all is well and the city is once again ready for visitors when the reality of the situation is far from "well." Visitors would soon realize the reality of the situation and word-of-mouth would do enough damage to the industry, not to mention the homeless residents who would rather they be taken care of before the visitors. It would also once again bring the tragedy and devastation that still remains to light, which for charitable reasons could be helpful but as far as the economy goes, could be highly toxic.


controversy surrounding the return of Mardi Gras. image courtesy the BlackCommentator.


image courtesy krupsjustsayin.blogspot.com

However, it is still believed that tourism will rescue the economy of the city. Rebuilding the tourism industry will mean rebuilding and reestablishing the culture, with the disaster remembered and helping to reshape the identity of NOLA to more than ghetto and poverty. There is even controversy about whether Mardi Gras should be celebrated this year, because the tourism industry is struggling to recover but the displaced residents believe their city is abandoning them for parades and tourists.


in attempts to bring visitors back to boost the economy. image courtesy skylinemusic.com.

There is a delicate balance between the tourist industry overtaking the total recovery effort or being a part of the solution to awareness and disaster recovery.


sources:
New Orleans' Tourist Blues, MSNBC
Tourism and the New Orleans Recovery, civictourism.org