The New Orleans Saints will travel to Paris this October to face the Cleveland Browns in the first ever NFL game to be played in France, and Louisiana's tourism officials say they'll be going to Paris, too.
Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser says he and tourism leaders from across the state will travel to Paris ahead of the game to let the French know Louisiana wants them to visit. According to Nungesser, his office is already planning a week's worth of activities in Paris leading up to the Saints/Browns game to encourage the French to visit Louisiana.
"Nobody sells Louisiana like Louisianans," Nungesser said. "It's a great opportunity to get a bunch of the travel writers, the tour guides, and the people who plan trips to America to get them together for some festivities, some great Louisiana, and to highlight all of the great things in Louisiana."
According to Nungesser, the state will play up its historical and cultural ties to France. Nungesser says this trip will also help deepen the state's French ties through strengthening Louisiana's French immersion programs in schools.
"We bring teachers over to teach in these immersion programs, and we also send students over there to learn the culture and then come back and teach our kids in the French immersion programs," Nungesser said. "So we will absolutely use this as an opportunity to highlight that, host some events with those potential people to come to Louisiana, and hopefully use it as a tool to continue the French immersion programs growing in Louisiana schools."
Nungesser says the European mission will go beyond France.
"We'll probably not only do it in Paris, but we'll jump over to London and host events as well to get people really excited about coming here," Nungesser said, adding that the trip will highlighting what makes Louisiana unique. "Just like we do for the Rose Parade, we're going to bring our partners from all over Louisiana to give them an opportunity to sell their part of the state and why people should visit their town and their city," Nungesser said.
According to Nungesser, the upcoming trip will promote Louisiana and attract tourists much more effectively than TV and radio commercials would. However, the White House's foreign policy could cause some complications for Nungesser's mission. The lieutenant governor says he's not phased.
"I think we do what we did in Canada a few months ago," Nungesser said. "We go there and let them know that they're always welcome to Louisiana besides the national politics."
Nungesser is confident the state's European excursion will lead to an increase in tourists visiting from overseas.
"When we're able to go host these events versus just running ads, it has a great return on investment in getting those travel planners excited about booking people from France to come to Louisiana."