What does this mean for New Orleans and particularly events at the New Orleans Ernest N Morial Convention Center?
“We do have some events in the coming weeks and months that have a share of international attendees and exhibitors and those are being impacted as expected,” said Tim Hemphill, Vice President for the New Orleans Convention Center. “We are not unlike any company that depends on travel for business and so we are dealing with that.”
Hemphill says they haven’t seen any events canceling, but he does see exhibitors, particularly from China, being impacted by the travel restrictions. I’ll give you an example; there is an event in the coming weeks and a lot of their exhibitors are from China, and they can’t get here. So those exhibitors both in attendees and equipment can’t get here and that would be a result of the coronavirus,” said Hemphill.
When asked how exhibitors who are no-shows because they can’t travel to the event will impact the event itself, Hemphill said there will just be empty booths, “These events are four and five years in the making so the planning for those are long so they can’t really cancel or they could but they won’t and the events will have an empty exhibit booth.”
Hemphill says as international exhibitors begin to not show up for their conventions, he expects some corresponding impact to the city’s hospitality and retail industries but says it is too soon to say how big of an impact it will have, “We haven’t experienced any of that yet but we do anticipate it,” said Hemphill.
But Hemphill doesn’t think the convention center will see any significant revenue loss but says they are prepared for it, “I think in the long run we have to manage our budget just like anybody else would have to manage their budget. If we have less revenue then we will have to deal with that but we will also have fewer expenses, and so think it is too early to tell but just like any other business we would have to react accordingly.” Hemphill concludes the convention center and the city is preparing for the coronavirus and they are doing the best they can with what they know at this point.