Tourism is our leading industry here in New Orleans, and considering our one-of-a-kind culture, it’s no wonder why that is true. From our food to our music to our traditions and history, New Orleans is unique. Because we live and breathe our special culture, it can be easy to forget that not all cities have what we have.

(photo from Matt Gundy on Flickr)

We are lucky to live in a city that boasts tourism as its number one source of fuel for its economy. Many other cities also thrive and have strong industries (like tech or healthcare), and offer a solid place to raise a family and offer their residents a great quality of life, but not all cities are a desired destination. What does that mean for us? It means that we have restaurants and cuisine delicious enough to entice people to buy a plane ticket to New Orleans; it means we have music, entertainment, and nightlife thrilling enough that people plan getaways and weekend trips here in our town; it means our culture is so rich with tradition, and our festivals and events are so desirable that not just some people, but a LOT of people have New Orleans on their list of places they are dying to travel to – and they do. People are coming here in droves to soak up the wonder of our city, fueling our economy as they go.

All of those things that are so appealing to these visitors, we get to take advantage of on a daily basis. Instead of being just an economically stable, functioning city, New Orleans is an economically thriving town of excitement and style. This is how we live and who we are, and it ends up being our greatest asset. People who live in New Orleans often talk of how they fall in love with our city over and over, and walking around in our daily lives here, there’s always another reason to see why. We can be grateful and extremely proud that tourism is New Orleans’ top industry – it means that we have got one heck of a city to call home.