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Axios
11-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
New Orleans hotels' Mardi Gras occupancy rates best since COVID
New Orleans hotels had their best Mardi Gras since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to early numbers from New Orleans & Co. Why it matters: "By all accounts, it was a great Mardi Gras" for the hospitality industry, New Orleans & Co. CEO Walt Leger III told The Times-Picayune. By the numbers: New Orleans has about 26,000 hotel rooms downtown, and occupancy averaged about 86% between Feb. 28 and Mardi Gras, the tourism agency says. On Endymion Saturday, occupancy is expected to have shot up to 95%. That's significantly better than last year, when occupancy over the comparable five-night stretch averaged 81%. Yes, but: In the pre-COVID days, peak hotel occupancy regularly reached 95% over Mardi Gras, The Times-Picayune reports. Between the lines: These numbers don't include short-term rentals, which represent a significant portion of the travel market. The big picture: The Jan. 1 terror attack on Bourbon Street shifted the narrative around New Orleans visitation as the city entered the Super Bowl and Carnival. Most of the conversation nationally focused on safety and whether a person could feel good about visiting the city so quickly after such a high-profile, deadly incident. Zoom in: CBD and French Quarter hotels saw 97% occupancy over the Friday and Saturday of Super Bowl week, according to industry numbers, with an average daily rate of just under $1,000. What's next: The official hotel numbers for Mardi Gras should be in by Friday, a New Orleans & Co. representative tells Axios New Orleans. Go deeper: Economic impact of Mardi Gras continues growing
Axios
12-02-2025
- Business
- Axios
Super Bowl a global hit but a clear miss for some
New Orleans leaders, city employees, artists, musicians, and hospitality industry staff spent years prepping for the Super Bowl and now that it's come and gone, some are left wondering if the major investment was worth it after all. The big picture: The week of Super Bowl itself is already a massive event, but the city may not feel its biggest impact yet, New Orleans & Co. CEO Walt Leger says. A key goal, he tells Axios New Orleans, was to "create demand for the future decade or so." "We're going to use this as a tool to paint the picture of what New Orleans has to offer, what it can do and prove it can host one of the most complex events on the planet and do it as well or better than anyone," he says. That can turn into "hundreds if not thousands of other events that will in turn create additional economic opportunity for neighborhoods and businesses all across the city." To that end, early returns do show success. People like Cardi B and Chad " Ochocinco" Johnson heaped praise upon the city on social media as Taylor Swift was spotted dining at Lilette and Apple CEO Tim Cook rolled into Domilise's with Odell Beckham Jr.. Then, top sports journalists with massive followings, like Ian Rapoport and Albert Breer, put out public calls to bring the Super Bowl back to New Orleans ASAP. Plus, a state effort to attract new business seemed to work, too, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois tells Axios New Orleans. Conversations around new business deals were happening "in the halls of the Superdome between company executives, [Gov. Jeff Landry] and me about when we'd make some new announcements," she says. "We got a lot of business done." Yes, but: Business wasn't booming for everyone. Despite its location in a busy Airbnb neighborhood and weekend promotions with a celebrity bartender and free king cake, the Southern Food and Beverage Museum saw a total of eight visitors over Super Bowl weekend, executive director Connie Jackson tells Axios New Orleans. The venue saw about 12 times that visitation during Sugar Bowl weekend, she says. The venue did get interest for private parties, she says, but those didn't pan out. Still, corporate cooking classes with Super Bowl visitors did make up for the lost revenue. "My business, along with a variety of tour businesses that we work with, also did terribly during Super Bowl week," says Leonard Crist, who owns tour company Gators and Ghosts. "It wasn't that it didn't meet expectations; it was actually worse than a similar random winter week before the Mardi Gras stuff gets going." What we're watching: Hotel data won't be in until later this week, and tax numbers that'll indicate visitor spend won't be in for at least a month, Leger says. The bottom line: "Some businesses will have prospered, and others will maybe feel like they would have liked to receive more business opportunities," Leger says. "There will be lessons learned … about how to try to activate and engage audiences who come in the future. … But this is global in reach and gives us a chance to attract countless other events."
