LATEST NEWS
•According to Travel + Leisure visitors, New Orleans tops the list as America's Favorite City 2012 Overall, as well as the Top City for: Cafes, Music Scene, Girlfriends Getaway, Antique Stores, Local Pride, Happy Hour, People-Watching, Wild Weekends, Singles Scene, Street Performers, Flea Market and New Year's Eve. Results were posted in the November 2012 issue. www.travelandleisure.com/americas-favorite-cities/2012/city/new-orleans
•The City of New Orleans receiving a 2012 World Tourism Award for “the extraordinary initiatives by individuals, companies, organizations, destinations and attractions for outstanding accomplishments in the travel industry.” Coinciding with this honor, the New Orleans CVB President and CEO Stephen Perry received a World Travel Market Globe Award for his role in restoring the city as a tourism destination following Hurricane Katrina.
•The 39th Annual Bayou Classic brings together family, friends and alumni of Grambling State University and Southern University to see college rivalries play and celebrate football, family and the traditions surrounding Historically Black Colleges and Universities. This year’s schedule includes the Battle of the Bands and Greek Show, Bayou Classic Thanksgiving Day Parade, as well as several other events. www.mybayouclassic.com
•New Orleans hosted 4.9 million visitors in the first half of 2012, an increase of two percent over the same period in 2011. These visitors spent a total of $3.45 billion, a boost of 11 percent over January - June 2011. These figures are the result of the 2012 University of New Orleans Hospitality Research Center's 2012 New Orleans Area Visitor Profile, commissioned by the New Orleans CVB and the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation.
•Condé Nast Traveler placed New Orleans in the Top 10 Cities in the United States in their 2012 Readers' Choice Awards. More than 46,000 readers, mostly made up of frequent travelers and travel trend-setters, voted in this year's poll. Condé Nast Traveler readers also voted New Orleans hotels in their Best Hotel and Top 40 Hotels in the South category. Hotels include the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel, The Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans, The Roosevelt Hotel New Orleans, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Soniat House Hotel, Windsor Court Hotel and Hotel Monteleone.
•The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center announced its partnership with the Recirculating Farms Coalition and the New Orleans Food and Farm Network to build an innovative food and farming center on 2.5 acres of land at the corner of Melpomene and Tchoupitoulas Streets. The new center, named Growing Local NOLA, will be a hub for research, education, training and community interaction on growing, marketing and preparing fresh food. www.mccno.com/a-food-and-farm-center-for-new-orleans-on-national-food-day/
•In August 2012, Southwest Airlines announced it will increase its presence in New Orleans with a total of 114 daily flights by March 9, 2013. Southwest currently operates 76 flights from New Orleans, and Air Tran Airways operates eight daily flights. This 35 percent increase in lift over the August schedule is a huge win for the New Orleans area. The additional flights will bring approximately 1.5 million additional seats into the market annually. www.flymsy.com
•The Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots opens its 141st Thoroughbred Racing Season on Thanksgiving Day, November 22. This season is highlighted by the milestone 100th running of the $1 million Louisiana Derby for Kentucky Derby hopefuls and the Inaugural Infield Festival on March 30, 2013. www.fairgroundsracecourse.com/
•Greyhound now offers a new service, Greyhound Express, a non-stop service between major cities, including Atlanta, Montgomery, Birmingham, Mobile, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Beaumont and Houston. These premiere buses include free Wi-Fi, reserved seating and many more upgrades. www.greyhound.com/Express/
•The Howard Hughes Corporation announced plans for the redevelopment of the Riverwalk Marketplace into an upscale outlet center – The Outlet Collection at Riverwalk. Planning to invest $70 million into the transformation of the retail venue, the Howard Hughes Corporation will expand its footprint by about 50,000 square feet. The property is expected to reopen in late 2013. www.riverwalkmarketplace.com
•After a multi-million dollar makeover, the Carnival Conquest returns to New Orleans. The upgrades include a variety of new features including an EA Sports Bar, Guy’s Burger Joint) developed in partnership with Food Network’s Guy Fieri), Punchliner Comedy Club presented by George Lopez, Red Frog Rum Bar and more. www.carnival.com/cruise-ships/carnival-conquest.aspx
•In 2012, the well-known neighborhood Tremé hosted a week-long series of events to celebrate its 200th anniversary. This area gave rise to jazz and brass bands, incredible architecture, Mardi Gras Indians and several pioneers of the civil rights movement, and is now home to key cultural institutions like the New Orleans African American Museum, Backstreet Cultural Museum, St. Augustine Catholic Church, Armstrong Park and more. www.treme2012.com
•The Irish Cultural Museum of New Orleans, now open in downtown New Orleans, devotes resources to promote education, charity and support to programs that promote the Irish and Irish-American culture and heritage in the city. www.icmnola.com
•Criollo Restaurant in the Hotel Monteleone is the recent recipient of OpenTable’s 2012 Diner’s Choice Award. The Diner’s Choice Award is given to restaurants based on reviews submitted via the diner feedback form at OpenTable.com, sent to each diner following an online reservation. www.criollonola.com
•Throughout the month of December, hotels, restaurants and attractions participate in Christmas New Orleans Style, offering deals and discounts for the holidays. More than 50 New Orleans hotels and bed & breakfasts offer Papa Noel deals all month long, while Reveillon Dinners, a Creole French holiday dining tradition, can be found at restaurants throughout the city. www.neworleansonline.com/holiday
•Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar in New Orleans was voted the Best Sports Bar in North America by ESPN Mobile. The winning bar was selected by a combination of fan balloting and editorial panel review. ESPN Mobile’s Editorial board said it was “impressed by their extensive food and beer selection, plethora of TV’s and, most importantly, extreme dedication by their patrons.” www.walk-ons.com
•Equire named SoBou as one of the Best New Restaurants in America. The magazine’s Food and Travel Correspondent compiled the list of Best Restaurants and selected this Commander’s Family restaurant to be one of the top new restaurants of the year. www.sobounola.com
•Live music, arts and nearly three dozen restaurants with the city's best chefs will decorate Oak Street for the sixth annual New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival on November 18 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For the first time the festival will have a VIP area that offers parking within walking distance of the festival, covered seating and an open bar featuring Abita Beer with a selection of non-alcoholic drinks and snacks. The music stages will feature local favorites Los Poboycitos, Flow Tribe, Honey Island Swamp Band, Treme Funktet and more. This festival is free, open to the public and fun for the family. www.poboyfest.com
•Emeril’s Delmonico announced a new chef, Chef Anthony Scanio, will lead the restaurant’s kitchen. Scanio was previously Delmonico’s executive sous chef, and combine his New Orleans heritage with a fresh, clean ingredient-based approach to cooking, keeping with Lagasse’s signature “New New Orleans” cuisine. www.emerilsrestaurants.com
•In anticipation of Super Bowl XLVII in February 2013 in New Orleans, the New Orleans CVB is partnering with Joe Cahn, the “Commissioner of Tailgating,” as he tours across the country showing NFL fans how to throw a Super Bowl party like a New Orleanian. Follow Joe on his “Road Home to the Dome.” www.tailgating.com
•A new exhibition at The Historic New Orleans Collection in the recently completed Perrilliat House opened in October 2012. Part of the Williams Research Center, the new building houses the Laura Simon Nelson Galleries for Louisiana Art. The new gallery space will host rotating exhibitions drawing from the visual-art collection donated by Nelson in 1995, along with other THNOC holdings. www.hnoc.com
•New Orleans’ performing arts scene continues to grow with the upcoming Broadway season at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, including Les Misérables (Oct. 30-Nov. 4), Mary Poppins (Dec. 18-23), Jersey Boys (Jan. 8-27, 2013), Flashdance (Feb. 26-March 3, 2013), Million Dollar Quartet (April 16-21, 2013) and Wicked (May 8-June 2, 2013) on the playbill. www.neworleans.broadway.com
•Voodoo Music + Arts Experience, October 26-28, featured headliners such as Metallica, The Avett Brothers and Neil Young & Crazy Horse and local favorites such as the Tremé Brass Band and Little Freddie King. Along with enjoying these world-class performing artists, festival-goers experienced multimedia art installations, parades, light shows, craft and food booths and more. Also, for the first time, camping was allowed at City Park throughout the festival. www.thevoodooexperience.com
•Tales of the Cocktail experienced another record breaking year at this summer’s 10th Anniversary festival in New Orleans in July 2012. More than 23,000 cocktail professionals and enthusiasts attended event gatherings throughout the city, a 7.8 percent increase from 2011. Attendees and vendors of the festival created an economic impact of $14.3 million, an increase of $1.6 million from 2011. www.talesofthecocktail.com
•In June 2012, The Southern Food and Beverage Museum broke ground on a 30,000-square-foot facility, which will include a restaurant, an exhibit for each of the 17 southern states, a children’s gallery, a cultural innovation center and more. This facility, along with the SoFAB Culinary Library, is scheduled to open in March 2013. www.southernfood.org
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