“We are optimistic and we feel we are moving into the summer in a good direction.” – Mark Romig, Chief Marketing Officer, New Orleans and Company.
Mark Romig is happy with the way the long three-day Memorial Day holiday has worked out.
Hotels in New Orleans are running around 90% occupancy, filled with visitors culled from the drive market—folks who live a day’s drive from New Orleans.
It means Romig’s strategy, to focus on those people who can jump in the car and make a quick trip into New Orleans, is working.
That’s been the working formula since the economy took a major hit with the COVID-19 pandemic.
But now it’s time to grow, expand, fill jobs and get ready for the next step in New Orleans' march back to being a preeminent tourism, convention, and business meeting destination.
Romig plays to his strong suit—staffing up.
“The New Orleans tourism industry continues its gradual recovery this Memorial Day Weekend, but again,” Romig says. “Filling jobs and getting more people vaccinated is absolutely critical before our economy is fully restored.”
Romig knows he’s got to have an army of people ready to work in the hotels, restaurants, shops, concierge desks, and other vital locations inside those big hotel towers.
These are people who are going to make New Orleans run and ensure the guests feel welcome, safe, confident in the decision to travel here and happy to return again.
“There are many segments of our industry that are not fully back,” Romig says, knowing the clock is running to have a lot of positions filled, or refilled, before the tourists return en masse. “Such as conventions, cruise ships, weddings, international guests, and the important midweek business travelers. So we have much work ahead of us.”
But Romig is optimistic the big numbers seen over the first long weekend of the summer travel season is a sign of things to come.
“I think this is a good springboard going into the summer where we’ll see a good number of leisure visitors come this way,” Romig explains. “Small groups are starting to come back and I think we’ll see the return of our much needed conventions in the third quarter into the fourth quarter.”
Projections are positive, but once again, it all depends on whether New Orleans can staff up to meet the demand.
“We’re in this together, it’s important to attract the talent to the number of jobs that are available. And if anyone is interested in one of those jobs, they can go to our website at NewOrleans.com/jobs and see the number of job opportunities that are available.”
