New Orleans meeting travelers are back, hotel data shows
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New Orleans hotels surged back this summer, industry data shows, with year-over-year revenue growth among the top in the nation for July and August.
Why it matters: Local tourism leaders say it was a final step in returning to pre-pandemic level convention travel.
The big picture: Hospitality drives the New Orleans economy, and when COVID-19 hit, social distancing measures tanked local business.
- And though most of those precautions ended a couple years ago, it's taken a while for the service industry to level out.
- Plus, thanks at least in part to all those Zoom meetings, business travel has been slower to come back than leisure travel.
Between the lines: New Orleans isn't the state capital, nor are many big companies based here, so local tourism marketing organization New Orleans & Co. relies on convention sales for most of its business travelers.
- That means a sales rep has to work with associations and other groups to bring in meetings and large-scale gatherings — but that kind of work is notoriously slow.
- "Those take one, two, three years to book," says New Orleans & Co. senior vice president of convention sales Stephanie Turner.
Zoom in: Turner says 2023 was already shaping up to be a slow year, but then the pandemic arrived and practically wrecked any hopes for boosting it up.
- "In COVID, you're not selling anything in the meetings world for a two-year period," Turner tells Axios New Orleans. "You're moving things around, and things are canceling."
- But 2024 shaped up nicely, thanks to some long- and short-term wins, she says, which made for a pretty solid bounce-back.
By the numbers: Between June and July, New Orleans jumped from being down 13.7% to being up 17.4% in revenue per available room, or revPAR, year over year.
- Then, in August, the revPAR jumped again, up to 23.3% year over year.
Yes, but: "When you have so little, that increase is big," Turner says.
- Plus, "we always have work to do in the third quarter," she cautions. "It's hot here.
Still, a win is a win, says New Orleans & Co. president and CEO Walt Leger. Plus, the citywide improvements coming in advance of hosting Super Bowl LIX will help for years to come.
- Already, the meeting calendars from 2025 to 2028 "are solid," Turner says, and events like Taylor Swift's Eras Tour help showcase the city's adaptability.
- And New Orleans was ranked in the top three cities for hosting the country's top conventions, according to a press release.
- "We're known for iconic events," Leger says.