The Advocate. September 5, 2023.
Editorial: Louisiana tourism is roaring back after pandemic, but state must welcome all
None of us in Louisiana, especially those of us proud of our hospitality and spirit of joie de vivre, cheered the loss of tourism in our state in the dark days after the deadly coronavirus arrived.
Now, we’re back, although maybe just a tad short of where we were ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly 42.6 million visitors came to the state in 2022, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser said. That total topped the roughly 41 million people who came in 2021 and the 31.7 million who passed through in 2020, according to data from Nungesser’s office. However, it was still short of the 53 million people who visited in 2019.
“The hotels weren’t back, the airlines weren’t back for the most extent, so I think we did pretty good,” Nungesser said during a speech at the Louisiana Travel Summit, a three-day travel conference hosted at the Crowne Plaza hotel by the Louisiana Travel Association and Visit Baton Rouge. Nola.com was an event sponsor.
Nungesser, who oversees the state Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, told the summiteers that the state and its many local partners, including business groups, will continue boosting travel to Louisiana nationally and internationally. Louisiana will once again sponsor floats in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the 2024 Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day.
Like many of his tourism counterparts around the country, Nungesser is high on the opportunities — and financial benefit — of promoting travel from foreign countries.
He said his office received a U.S. Department of Commerce grant to visit new international markets in the next three years, including India and Spain. His staff is also planning trips to Amsterdam and Paris. Nungesser and his staffers visited Australia and New Zealand earlier this summer.
“The international market is wide open for us,” Nungesser said, but we’d also note that there is intense competition for those travelers: They tend to come to Louisiana, particularly New Orleans, and stay longer and spend more. But the same is true if they opt for Miami or Las Vegas.
Louisiana’s promotions are vital, but we also need to avoid missteps such as the embarrassing display of hostility to gay/transgender residents in the last few years at the Legislature.
A Canadian province recently issued a general warning to gay and lesbian travelers that rights can be restricted in a number of states in light of this wave of legislation, not only here but across the South.
Maybe that won’t matter as much in Alabama or Tennessee, but as a proud tourism center, we have to worry. Folks this fall should ask candidates for the Legislature and other offices if they’re aware of the potential economic risks of this kind of legislation.
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