Louisiana Tourism
Louisiana is a state in the United States of America and considered as part of South America. The capital of the state is Baton Rouge and the largest city located in Louisiana is New Orleans. Louisiana tourism is one of the top- performing industries in the state due to a wide variety of offers it has for all the travelers and vacationers. From different tourist destinations, natural or manmade, to an array of activities, there is no reason at all for travelers to think twice. Coming to Louisiana is something that nobody will ever regret at the end of the day.
In the year 2000 alone, 15.4 million visitors were recorded to have come to Louisiana. In 2001, initial reports estimated a total of $9 billion of travel- related impact on the economy of the state. The industry has also opened 124, 200 jobs for many aspiring jobseekers not only in the state of Louisiana but also from other neighboring states. There are two most common activities among visitors and these are shopping and gambling. The world had turned upside down when Hurricane Katrina showed her rage against New Orleans and the neighboring areas in the year 2005. The coming of Katrina unfortunately resulted in the complete elimination of tourism in the damaged places.
Two- thirds of the city of New Orleans was submerged by the hurricane which led to the forcible relocation of the majority of its population. This relocation may have been either temporary or permanent. The University of Loyola and University of Tulane could not do anything else about it but forcibly suspend at least a semester of classes. After the suspension of classes, many of their students did not come back to such universities. The said devastated places did not lose hope and painstakingly restored all the things that were lost and damaged by the natural disaster. In 2006, the New Orleans’ French Quarter supported tourism and it paved the way for a newly rehabilitated state of Louisiana.
The largest city of Louisiana is one of the major attractions and tourist destinations in the United States of America. New Orleans is a popular Louisianan city for its high quality restaurants, wonderful French Quarter buildings, jazz clubs and a carnival known as Mardi Gras. It has been believed that the greatest attraction in the state is its rich French heritage. Many tourists get interested in its French cuisine, French law and others.
One of the reasons that bring tourists to the state is the different annual big events. A famous annual event in Louisiana is the shrimp fleet’s blessing which is held at the Shrimp and Petroleum Fest of Louisiana in the city of Morgan on the Labor Day weekend. The cane fields’ blessing during the Sugar Cane Fest of Louisiana is also celebrated in September at New Iberia. In the month of October, the big events to look forward to include the Int’l Rice Festival at Crowley, Cotton Festival of Louisiana at Ville Platte, Yambilee Festival of Louisiana at Opelousas, and the State Fair of Louisiana at Shreveport. In December, one of the attractions in the state is the Natchitoches Festival for Christmas which primarily features 170,000 colorful and bright Christmas lights and awe- inspiring firework displays.
The state of Louisiana has a total of 34 state parks and 15,800- hectare recreation sites. It means to say that no tourist will ever run out of a place in Louisiana to have fun and spend leisure time with their loved ones. There are numerous things the Louisiana tourism has to offer to their valued visitors either for leisure or business.