IPW 2024

 WHAT'S NEW IN NEW ORLEANS HOSPITALITY 2024

 Festival Season is Here

• 
  Jazz Fest consists of two four-day weekends with the Rolling Stones headlining the second weekend on Thursday, May 2 – Sunday, May 5. The full schedule is available here. 
  
• The Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo is back along the banks of Bayou St. John starting Friday May 17 – Sunday, May 19. There will be lots of live music, food vendors and craft tents to see. More information here. Visitors can enjoy the festival along the banks or bring a kayak or small inflatable raft or boat and hang out along the water.
• Bayou St. John is also the backdrop for the 49th annual New Orleans Greek Festival. The community of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral will host Greek Fest May 24,25 and 26. There will be lots of authentic Greek food and pastries, shopping, and entertainment.

Other Upcoming Events

• Wednesday's at the Square – The Young Leadership Council of New Orleans will once again put on the weekly concert series at Lafayette Square. The weekly concert Series highlights a variety of music styles including jazz, rock, funk, swamp-pop, Latin rhythms and more. The free concert series runs through May 8. The event is free and open to the public.

Super Bowl Handoff  

• New Orleans will be the host city for Super Bowl LIX, in 2025, which is the record tying 11th time the city has hosted the NFL Championship game. Last month, the host committee in Las Vegas, where the game was played officially hand over the reins to the New Orleans host committee, led by Markus Brown, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Entergy. It will mark the official countdown to the game here in New Orleans on February 9, 2025. The game will bring the eyes of the world, titans of industry, celebrities, and international media to New Orleans.

Conventions and Meetings

  

• Our Sales team at New Orleans & Company is working to secure a base of meetings now and as far out as 10 or more years from now. The race to create and re-create visitor experiences has become more intense, and our team is better serving our clients and potential clients by becoming experts on many topics such as sustainability and healthcare policy to stay ahead of our competition. 

• Conventions and meetings coming to New Orleans in May include the American Association of Orthodontists, The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, WTS Women's Transportation Seminar International, Ochin, American Petroleum Institute, Association of Junior Leagues International, Association for Talent Development, Scrum Alliance, Restaurant Brands International, and New Cardiovascular Horizons

Home for Good Initiative

• New Orleans & Company is partnering with several groups in the New Orleans “Home for Good” initiative. New Orleans councilmember Leslie Harris, who started the initiative to address the unhoused population of the city, is also partnering with UNITY of Greater New Orleans, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, United Way of Southeast Louisiana, the New Orleans Health Department, Travelers Aid Society, and City of New Orleans Homeless Services and Strategy.
• Since November 2023, the initiative has help decommission three homeless encampments in the city, Bringing the total number of people who now have housing to 132.
• The program will help those unhoused get a roof over their head and those involved are developing the strategy and long-term plan of housing 1,500 individuals with supportive services to get them off the street and into stable, permanent residences by 2025.
• This will be done by decommissioning homeless encampments, coordinating housing navigation for other unsheltered persons, amplify and accelerate exits from shelters to housing.

        What's different with this initiative:

• Braiding local, state, and federal resources.
• Targeted capacity city-wide and in encampment areas.
• Engage rental market to hold quality units and support landlords – bringing new housing options to the table. 
• Sustainability planning will identify future investments necessary to maintain our results. 
• United Way and Greater New Orleans Foundation have set up a flexible fund to cover certain gaps like money for furniture hygiene and cleaning supplies, pet fees.
• New Orleans & Company's mission is to inspire, promote and encourage actions that result in a better community for those who live, work, and visit here. Working with this initiative gives us the opportunity to support quality of life for residents who need assistance.

2024 Awards

• The Audubon Zoo in New Orleans has earned the title as one of the top 10 zoos in the United States for 2024. USA Today's 10 best competition asked readers for their top choices. It's the eighth year that the Audubon Institute has been honored with the award.
• USA Today readers also voted the New Orleans Riverfront as one of the best in the U.S. in its 2024 10 best competitions. The New Orleans Riverfront Ranked number two in the nation.
• Travel + Leisure Magazine named the Windsor Court Hotel on of the top 500 hotels in the world. The list is drawn from last year's World Best Award results and compiles the hotels and resorts that T+L readers turn to again and again for quality, luxury, exceptional service, and outstanding amenities. 
• Travel + Leisure Magazine also named New Orleans one of the 10 Best Cocktail Cities in America. The magazine asked some of the nation's best bartenders to weigh in on their choices, naming New Orleans and number two on their list.
• Readers of Southern Living Magazine voted New Orleans as one of the South's Best Cities. New Orleans came in number 4 out of 25 cities in consideration.
• New Orleans was named one of the world best cities by Resonance. The Crescent City ranks in the Top 50 globally in the overall Lovability index, which includes Nightlife (#18), Shopping (#23), and TripadvisorReviews (#25). And we work as hard as we play, ranking #22 in GDP per Capita.
• New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International hit a milestone on Sunday April 14th, reporting its busiest day ever with 27,972 total people screened through TSA security checkpoints.
• New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International is also one of three North American airports to win Best Airport among those serving 5-15 million passengers per year. This is the third year in a row that the Airports Council International (ACI) World's Airport Service Quality (ASQ) program has honored Armstrong International. The ASQ awards highlight the world's best airports as judged by their customers who are surveyed while they are in the airport.
• AFAR Magazine named New Orleans as one of the top 10 places to visit in April, ranking the city as number eight. The piece highlights Jazz Fest, the headliners, and what guests can expect from the event, as well as the Hyatt Centric French Quarter as the place to stay when visiting New Orleans.
• New Orleans was named in Time Out's Best Cities in The World to Visit. Men's Journal also picked up the Time out article which helped reach an even larger audience.
• Tripadvisor named New Orleans as Best Food Destination in the United States (for the second year in a row) in the 2024 Travelers' Choice Awards