By Brian Hoyt
The driver from the airport told me that I’d hardly see impact from Katrina on the ride through Jefferson Parish as I made my way to downtown New Orleans. Some signs of wind damage as we rode on Interstate 10, but no signs of flooding. Not anymore. They cleaned up the pathway into the city. Deep within the 9th Ward, however, I’m told there are still houses that remain empty. FEMA trailers still parked in the driveways of skeleton framed homes. This scene, important to keep visible, is out of sight from tourism’s view. The headline while I’m in town in the Times-Picayune still talks of levees and flood maps in development by the Army Corps of Engineers.
It was my first time back to New Orleans since Katrina. I had wanted to come back earlier, but life got busy. New Orleans is a good place to go when life gets too busy. I really love this town.
My company has helped our customers go back to New Orleans, in a virtual way at least. Working with several of my colleagues at Orbitz Worldwide, we started a volunteer vacations program with the United Way. In 2007, we launched http://volunteer.cheaptickets.com. Our CEO, Steven Barnhart, gave every employee 2 paid days off a year to volunteer — part of our Protect Planet Earth Campaign. Over 70 employees in the company took Steve up on the offer to volunteer in 2007. They’ve done some good work in many communities across the country. Hopefully, more employees take a volunteer vacation this year. Their efforts remind me that I should come to New Orleans or travel somewhere else to give back to these travel and tourism communities that help keep my paychecks coming. This industry pays my bills, and places like New Orleans remind us all why travel should be fun and what it takes to make the experience “keep on keepin’ on.”
But I’m not writing to promote the virtues of giving back to organizations like the United Way. Or about building homes for those impacted by the storms that destroyed entire towns in the Gulf States.
I want to talk about New Orleans, and why I am born again in NOLA.
I stayed at a great hotel I never knew existed, the Windsor Court. Huge rooms and a good price. They even had a little oven and electric range in the room, not that I cooked when I was in town. Other New Orleans hotels — Marriott, Sheraton, W, Westin, Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Best Western and Crowne Plaza — all packed and open for business.
My hotel was directly across the street from Harrah’s Casino, where I admit losing $60 in 45 minutes at the blackjack tables on my first night in town. And on my second night, I won most of it back after only three pulls on a slot machine! And while March is prime season for Spring Breakers, there were plenty of business people and even families to balance things out.
Bourbon Street is college crowds and strip clubs and dive bars, but a recovering New Orleans is much more than a horde of drunken kids on a week long binge and break from school.
The convention center is back and running. My hotel manager boasts New Orleans could handle the Republican AND Democratic National Conventions — if only our presidential candidates opted to hold it there.
The Superdome, home of the pro football team here, looks saintly. Hotels and cabs were plentiful. The airport is easy to navigate. This is a great place to do business. Certainly, the folks at the Windsor Court could not have been nicer or more accommodating.