The Port of New Orleans and Carnival Cruise line today are celebrating Carnival's 30th anniversary at the port, and the cruise line is bringing a new ship to home port here as part of the celebration.
The Carnival Liberty now sails to and from New Orleans. PortNOLA leader Brandy Christian says Carnival helped establish New Orleans as a cruise hub.
"They've had over 30 years her in New Orleans with their two year-round vessels," she said.
Liberty replaces the Carnival Glory, which now home ports in Port Canaveral, Florida, and joins the Carnival Valor as the city's two home-ported Carnival cruise ships.
Meanwhile, Christian says PortNOLA is poised to break its records for cruise passengers.
"This year, we project this next fiscal year that we'll probably have our highest year of passenger moves, in our history." she said: potentially 1.3 million for their next fiscal year.
Christian said it is hard to overstate how important that is for the New Orleans economy.
"The cruise starts here, ends here, and that allows for the pre- or post-hotel room stays," said Christian, which is a big provider of business for local hotels on an annual basis: "300,00 room-nights for the hotels."
