New Orleanians have a special bond – it takes a certain type of person to live in this city, and once you fall in love with New Orleans, it’s very hard to leave. Because we share this bond and pride in our city, we want each other to do well; we support each other. We rally together behind our Saints (Who Dat!), important causes, and the preservation and protection of our city and culture. Another important way we can support each other is by supporting tourism in New Orleans.

Our local economy is affected by so many factors, and the intricacies of our success as a city are complex. And if you weren’t aware, an important fact about our economy is that tourism is our number one industry. It provides the biggest chunk of fuel for our economic growth, and the benefits we see from increased tourism run the gamut and affect us all. Some people might think that if they don’t work in the tourism industry, then tourism doesn’t have much to do with them, but that just isn’t so. When tourism dollars are spent here in New Orleans by out-of-towners, each dollar enters our economy and is spent several more times throughout our city before it leaves our local economy, creating revenue several times over for our local businesses. Career paths are available for many people in the tourism industry who otherwise may not have them, and our government generates important revenue for infrastructure improvements and changes from sales tax revenue from purchases made by visitors. Improvements are made to our city for tourism that always benefit us and make our city greater.

When we support tourism, we are supporting each other. We are supporting growth in wealth for our city as a whole; we are supporting more opportunities for every one of us, as our economy and reputation grow stronger and better.