louisiana tourism covid-19

COVID-19 TOURISM IN LOUISIANA

Its festival season here in louisiana but most festivals have either been rescheduled or are going virtual because of covid-19 restrictions news 1's leigha mcneil tells us how tourism as been impacted both locally and state wide standup: well guys this time last year i was going live from festival international and now 'm here going live from my living room...clearly many things have changed including how the hospitality and travel industry have been effected due to covid 19 "the travel industry is probably one of the industries tha's been the hardest hit."

According to her research wallet hub analysis jill gonzales says 6 million jobs have been lost due to covid 19....some of thoes right here in the boot.."they bring in so many people from not only around the country but around the world so that obviously is a huge part of the state gdp."

"w've lost from just the meetings the conventions and sports we lost 26,000 rooms that we are aware of and around $43.5 million of loss in economic impact for our area."

That loss does't even include leisure activities like festivals said president and ceo of the lafayette convention and visitors commission ben berthelot....however as more large events are being postponed, could they find a home in acadiana?"there will be realities that some events will be looking for a possible new home we have already had one youth sports tournament that has reached out to us and is booked for later on in the summer."

Ben says its highly unlikely established festivals like jazzfest and essence will be relocated...but there is possibality for sporting events to pop up if restrictions are lifted"the summertime is always a busy time the sports market in so i think we can have a small shot in the arm through the sports market later this summer if 3 things are opened up and the safety allows for that to happen."

As we anticipate what the future hold for the 3 travel and hospitality industry...jill and ben agree things wont return back to normal right away"people are going to immediately just hop on a plane w're gonna have to rely on regional and drive traffic from other louisianians coming down to visit.""i's still a guessing game right now but one thing for certain is that this industry in particular is going to feel the effects of this longer than a lot of the other industries."in lafayette leigha mcneil news 15 thanks leigha...while its hard to support the travel and hospitality industries right now...jill encourages you so engage in virtual opportunities since most museums across the country have gone online...ben says he expects to continue to get inquiries about hosting events new