New Orleans desperately seeks tourists

NEW ORLEANS — A year after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans is desperately seeking tourists.

The areas where tourists go largely escaped devastation — and are eagerly awaiting visitors willing to come and spend money.

Plenty of hotel rooms are again available, most of New Orleans' world-renowned restaurants are open, events such as Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest are back, and the city is reassembling its national sports presence centered around the Louisiana Superdome and New Orleans Arena.

Although the hot, humid months of summer are typically the city's slow season, tourism officials say there's more than ample evidence — from their cash registers — that word hasn't gotten out.

"Right now, we're hunkered down for a slow summer," said Darrius Gray, general manager of the Holiday Inn-French Quarter and president of the Greater New Orleans Hotel & Lodging Association. "It's slower than usual."

On a recent sultry day on Bourbon Street, Matt Buddenborg of the Detroit area took in the trademark tourist street on his first day in town. "To tell you the truth, I thought it would be messy," he said. "It's really well put-together."

David Clay of Casper, Wyo., on a road trip through the South with Buddenborg, said he'd heard that tourists areas were solid but was still surprised by what he saw.

"I was expecting more disaster, but it looks pretty nice," Clay said.

With the city still reeling from Katrina, and hotel rooms packed with emergency workers and displaced residents, a scaled-back Mardi Gras was held in February, attracting an estimated 700,000 people. In April and May, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival returned with Shell Exploration & Production Co., a major employer in the region, sponsoring the music event. The two-weekend Jazz Fest drew 350,000.

By comparison, in the past, a million people typically attend the culmination of the Carnival season, and the 2003 Jazz Fest attracted an estimated 503,000 spectators.

Next year's Fat Tuesday celebration, the final day of Mardi Gras, is set for Feb. 20.

A third big event — the annual Essence Festival — moved to Houston this summer because of hurricane repairs to the Superdome. It's not known yet if the festival will return to the city in 2007, though talks are under way.