Inside the multi-million-dollar campaign aimed at bringing business travel back to New Orleans | Business News
New Orleans & Company, the city’s destination marketing agency, and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center are planning a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to attract business travelers back to the city as it is recovering from the pandemic.
Marketing efforts are amid intense national competition and fears that the spread of the Delta variant and a resurgence of COVID cases could hold back the modest recovery in the tourism and travel market so far this year.
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center will be redesigned for several years with a new facade and plants on Tuesday, May 4, 2021 in New Orleans. (Employee photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
The leisure travel market has been recovering steadily since Easter, with increasing passenger numbers at Louis Armstrong International New Orleans Airport and increasing hotel occupancy on weekends.
However, the business travel market is lagging behind the recreational travel recovery and is 60-75% below 2019 levels nationwide, according to recent estimates by United Airlines and Southwest Airlines CEOs.
Group travel for meetings and conventions also recovered slowly and was around 45% of 2019 levels last month, according to the US Travel Association, a trade industry association.
Kelly Schulz, spokeswoman for New Orleans & Company, said the group’s business travelers and convention attendants are needed to get the hospitality industry back on its feet.
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“The leisure numbers are not where they should be at all, but they are encouraging. We saw good numbers at the airport and saw a lot of traffic over the July 4th holiday,” said Schulz. “A lot of hotels sell out on the weekends, but we have to do this all week to make sure they, shops and restaurants are full, and the return of business people and international travelers is a big part of that.”
The convention center has not seen any major new conferences in the past 16 months and on Tuesday revised its budget to reflect an expected higher operating loss for this year compared to last year.
Last year the convention center had an operating loss of just over $ 28 million. That number is expected to climb to more than $ 34 million this year, and the board has cut forecast operating income by $ 1 million after a worse than expected first half. However, the board hopes the Centre’s share of the city’s hotel taxes will soar this year – to $ 42 million from $ 25 million last year – bringing the total loss to $ 14 million from $ 23 million US dollars can be lowered.
That will depend on a brilliant second half of the year for the city’s hotels, boosted by dozens of events at the center, including several with 18,000 or more visitors, according to Tim Hemphill, the center’s marketing director.
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These will begin in early September with an event that Hemphill refused to publicly identify at the request of the organizer, who cited safety concerns.
The event is likely the International Association of Police Chiefs, which has announced that it will hold its four-day annual conference and exhibition at the convention center starting September 11th.
Other major conferences from September to December include Solar Power International, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and the American Geophysical Union.
The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center will get a new facade on Tuesday, May 4th, 2021 in New Orleans. (Personal photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Hemphill said the new marketing campaign, led by Atlanta-based advertising agency 360i, slogan “Built to Host” is the first full collaboration between the convention center and New Orleans & Company. The overall budget has not yet been determined, but the centre’s annual budget has allocated $ 2 million, mostly used for the campaign.
“It’s going to have a bigger impact now as we rebuild the brand for New Orleans,” said Hemphill.
Schulz said reaching out to business travelers and event planners is critical to getting the city’s hospitality back on its feet after a year and a half of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of jobs lost.
“The goal is really to make New Orleans stand out,” she said. “It’s always been a competitive business, but after a pandemic it’s incredibly more competitive and we have to do everything we can to differentiate ourselves.”
She found that New Orleans doesn’t have the natural business traveler appeal like cities like Atlanta, Chicago, or Dallas, which are hubs for Fortune 500 companies. So it has to rely on other attributes to compete with similar congressional destinations like Las Vegas, Nashville, and Orlando.
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The campaign, which includes traditional media, social media and other forms of marketing, will highlight the city’s traditional historical and cultural attractions as well as new features such as the Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience and new hotels including The Four Seasons and the Jungfrau Hotel.
Schulz said the resurgence of the Delta variant is worrying and the campaign will also emphasize that the city has a high vaccination rate.
“We’ve definitely been watching it. We’ve lost people, it’s been a huge financial blow to many businesses, and the last thing we want to do is go back … For us a community with a high vaccination” rate is vital . “
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