New Orleans Sets New Record for Visitor Spending in 2015

Stephen Perry, president and CEO of New Orleans CVB, alongside Louisiana Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser celebrate National Travel & Tourism Week in a Mardi Gras-style parade through the French Quarter. Credit: Jeff Anding.

In 2015, visitors to New Orleans spent $7.05 billion dollars, a 3.5 percent increase compared to the visitor spending record set in 2014, and the city hosted 9.78 million visitors, a 2.7 percent increase compared to 2014.

The 2015 New Orleans Area Visitor Profile study, completed by the University of New Orleans (UNO) Hospitality Research Center for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation (NOTMC) shows increases in both spending and visitation since Hurricane Katrina.

The survey showed that overnight visitors to the New Orleans area who stayed in hotels spent an average of $1,011 per person, per trip in 2015. Visitors stayed for an average of 4.2 nights and spent an average of $238 per person, per day.

“We are in a strong tourism growth curve stimulated by new investment in expanded marketing and sales fueling our fiercely competitive battle to draw leisure visitors, conventions and major special events. We are not only attracting more visitors, but more quality visitors, as evidenced by the solid increase in visitor spending to record levels. And with our state facing massive budget deficits and recession in a number of our traditional economic sectors, our greater New Orleans tourism industry is firmly entrenched as the state leader in job creation, state and local tax generation, and as the rapidly expanding catalyst for strong economic growth and opportunity that benefits every other business sector and the quality of life and state services for every Louisianan,” said Stephen Perry, president and CEO of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.

One example of the NOCVB’s strategy of attracting quality visitors is hosting IPW in June of this year. IPW is the travel industry’s premier international marketplace and the largest generator of travel to the U.S. Between June 18–22, more than 1,000 U.S. travel organizations from every region of the USA (representing all industry category components), and more than 1,300 international and domestic buyers and 500 travel journalists from more than 70 countries will visit New Orleans to conduct business negotiations that result in the generation of more than $4.7 billion in future travel to the U.S. New Orleans expects to see an increase in international visitation for the next three years after hosting IPW this year. The international visitors that the NOCVB is appealing to are known to stay longer and spend more money.

In 2004, New Orleans welcomed 10.1 million visitors, who spent $4.9 billion. In 2006, after Hurricane Katrina, visitor numbers dropped to 3.7 million, with $2.9 billion in visitor spending. Due to the efforts of the New Orleans CVB and the NOTMC, visitor numbers have steadily increased, but more importantly, visitor spending has more than doubled since Katrina. Since 2010, visitation spending in New Orleans has increased by nearly 33 percent.

The UNO research for 2015 showed that the cumulative 3.5 percent increase in spending activity was felt in all categories:

• Lodging spending increased by 3.7 percent.
• Entertainment spending increased by 5.4 percent.
• Shopping spending increased by 2.7 percent.
• Restaurant spending increased by 3.3 percent.
• Spending in bars and nightclubs increased by 3.1 percent.
• Visitors who stayed overnight in a hotel spent an average of $238 per person per day.
• Visitors who came to New Orleans for the day spent an average of $188 per person.

The peak period for visiting New Orleans in 2015 was the second quarter, which can be related to Jazz Fest, French Quarter Fest and conventions. The primary purpose of their visit remained similar to what it has been over the last five years:

• 76.7 percent of visitors surveyed, including day trippers, were in New Orleans for vacation/pleasure.
• 13.1 percent of visitors surveyed were in New Orleans for association, convention, trade show or corporate meetings.
• 10.2 percent of visitors surveyed were in town for general business.
• Cruise visitors comprised about 1.5 percent of the total number of visitor responses, and nearly all (83.5 percent) stayed in New Orleans before or after their cruise. The average number of nights in the city was 2.2.

The 2015 New Orleans Area Visitor Profile report also found:

• Visitation from Louisiana, outside of the New Orleans Metro Area, and Texas tied as the top feeder market in 2015 at 12.7 percent each. The percentage of Louisiana visitors returned to similar levels to those seen in years prior to 2014. The next most popular states of origin were California (6.5 percent), Florida (6.2 percent), and Mississippi (5.1 percent).
• When considering overnight visitation only, the top feeder markets in 2015 were Texas (13.8 percent), California (7.6 percent), Louisiana outside of New Orleans (6.7 percent), and Florida (6.6 percent).
• The proportion of visitors with income of $200,000 or more reached the highest figure since 2012 (10.4 percent); 24.2 percent of visitors had a household income of $100,000 – $149,000, and the percentage of visitors with an income of under $25,000 continued to decrease.
• The percentage of single visitors to New Orleans, not widowed or divorced, dropped slightly from 18.3 percent in 2014 to 17.2 percent in 2015.
• 4.1 percent of respondents identified themselves as LGBT.
• There was a slight increase in respondents who reported having children under the age of 18 living in their household (22.8 percent).
• Visitors age 50-64 made up the largest demographic for 2015 (36.1 percent), followed by 35-49 (29.8 percent). During 2015 the percentage of respondents in the 25-34-years-old group represented the lowest figure since 2010 (15.3 percent), while the 65-years or older group had the largest proportion in the last six years (14.6 percent).
• Average number of people per travel party was 3.1.
• The majority of visitors surveyed arrived in their personal vehicle (47.8 percent), while 46.2 percent arrived by airplane.

www.neworleanscvb.com