Tourism numbers continue to rebound from the pandemic, but haven't quite reached overall numbers from 2019.
Hotel tax collections for the Superdome are actually up, says Dough Thornton, executive vice president with ASM Global, the company that manages Caesar's Superdome and the Smoothie King Center.
"Roughly $800,000 above the 2019 levels three months into the fiscal year," said Thornton.
Even though the revenue is above 2019 levels, Thornton says that's because rates are higher
"What I'm hearing from the New Orleans & Company folks is that rates are up," he explained. "Occupancy's not, still not back to the highest levels but the rates are still really high."
Thornton said between inflation and New Orleans crime, both on the rise, "we're watching closely what's going to happen with the convention industry given the news that's been out, lately. I'm sure that will have some impact but so far it hasn't negatively impacted the hotel tax or the convention bookings."
