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Expedia: Five Years After Katrina, Big Easy Hotels Booming
September 7, 2010
Despite a dramatic decline in tourism after Hurricane Katrina, hotel bookings in New Orleans have steadily increased in the five years since the storm, online travel company Expedia announced last week, on Katrina's fifth anniversary.
According to Expedia, which analyzed data on hotel bookings to New Orleans made on Expedia- and Hotels.com-branded sites worldwide, hotel bookings to the Big Easy tumbled by nearly 70 percent year-over-year for the three months before Katrina hit in 2005 versus the same period in 2006. Since then, however, they've been rising — up 75 percent in 2007, 16 percent in 2008, 19 percent in 2009 and 12 percent in 2010.
"No other city in the nation can match the level of spirit and energy of New Orleans," said Seth Bertentahl, Expedia's New Orleans market manager. "In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, hotels opened their doors to displaced residents and those searching for missing family members. The dedication local hotels showed to those in need is a testament to the level of strength and stability they bring to the City of New Orleans, and it is a perfect example of the positive impact they have had on the city's ability to recover."
Since Katrina, area hotels have undergone $400 million in improvements, according to the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"Tourism is one of the success stories of post-Katrina New Orleans," New Orleans CVB Vice President of Communications Kelly Schulz told NBC News last week. "Just look at the numbers."
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