New Orleans to Attract More Tourists with Pow Wow Event

11:46 June 20, 2016
By: Anna Young

This week, New Orleans is hosting the U.S. Travel Association’s International Pow Wow Event. This annual conference helps reel in tourists from around the globe to whichever city hosts it, and since this weekend, it has brought in about 6000 representatives from over 73 countries to New Orleans.

The event hasn’t been held in New Orleans since 2002, and as a result, many of the representatives have been eager to see how the city has recovered from Katrina. Many have never visited here before, but the general impression they have received so far is a positive one.

What has attracted them to the city, according to Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, is the culture that is exclusive to New Orleans: the food, the music, the hospitality. If the representatives remain impressed, then once they return to their home countries, they will begin to write stories promoting New Orleans as a hot travel spot.

The benefits of this event are financial. The association has been tracking the revenue for the Pow Wow over the past few years, and according to Dow, the average amount of money received by each city where the Pow Wow is held is 1.7 billion dollars. However, Dow anticipates an oversized amount in return for New Orleans, since it offers an experience that sets it apart from other cities across the country.

The total sum is expected to accumulate over the next 3 years, so the benefits aren’t exactly instantaneous. However, that New Orleans is getting attention from America’s 2.1 billion dollar travel industry is impactful.

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