New Orleans :: Tourism Updates
Many in our hotel industry have offered to serve as the headquarters, service stations and housing for emergency workers, construction workers, federal personnel, public safety officers and all other essential persons. Together, these hotels are providing a base of operations from which to facilitate the rebuilding of the city.
Continue below...
|
Hotel Commitment
Many in our hotel industry have offered to serve as the headquarters, service stations and housing for emergency workers, construction workers, federal personnel, public safety officers and all other essential persons. Together, these hotels are providing a base of operations from which to facilitate the rebuilding of the city.
As these workers are hosted and the city is rebuilt, the hotels will also renovate and update their own infrastructures. This dual-faceted focus will provide essential and stabilizing jobs for the city’s service employees. It will also give the hotels a head start on rebuilding the tourism industry and the 81,000 jobs it supports.
It will be a long process, but our hotels want to do their part. They are now, and will continue to be, invaluable to New Orleans’ rebuilding process.
Hotels and Lodging Status
A mandatory evacuation order has been instituted for Galvaston, Tx., vulnerable parts of Houston, and New Orleans as Hurricane Rita advances across the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 5 hurricane. New Orleans asked for 200 buses for the evacuation, and 150 were available today to begin evacuating people from departure points at the Convention Center and a stadium in Algiers.
Local officials estimated that approximately 400-500 people were currently in New Orleans. Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco have told everyone in New Orleans to evacuate.
All tourists had been successfully evacuated from the city’s hotels following Hurricane Katrina. Some hotels are accommodating post-Katrina recovery workers and servicers, who will be evacuated due to Hurricane Rita. Business owners who had returned to the French Quarter and CBD beginning over the weekend have now been asked to re-evacuate.
An industry study group said on Sunday that damage to hotels in the Gulf Coast states hit by Hurricane Katrina left approximately 46,000 rooms unavailable, inlcuding 24,972 rooms in New Orleans. The group noted that 14 hotels involved in the study are currently accommodating rescue and recovery workers and servicers.
The NOMCVB and the Greater New Orleans Hotel and Lodging Association (GNOHLA) continue to conduct baseline analysis of hotel capacity to serve as accommodation for emergency, public safety, and utility personnel. We are also working with Entergy to assist in the safe conversion of properties from generator to electrical power. Entergy reports that the French Quarter will have power restored by Sept. 23.
Some properties (incuding the Marriott, Hyatt, Sheraton and W Hotels) have full power, either benefiting from the restoration of service in certain areas of the city or temporarily using water tanks and large scale generators. Many hotel assessment, building management, and operational teams are in the city and have their properties up and running as accommodation for recovery personnel. Other hotel teams are poised to enter the city once evacuation orders are lifted.
Initial surveys indicate that hotels in general suffered far less wind and structural damage than some other parts of the city. Complete damage assessments are just beginning, however. Reconstruction, repair and renovation needs will vary from property to property.
It is therefore important that anyone with plans to travel to New Orleans during the next three months check this website, the national news, and most importantly their hotels directly regarding the status of city tourism and their specific reservations.
|
