The recovery in New Orleans’ tourism industry has gotten a lot of national attention but another hard-hit area, Biloxi, now has more direct flights than it did three years ago before Katrina.
Prior to Katrina, the airport had four carriers serving direct flights to six cities. Now it has nine carriers serving 12 cities.
“Tourism has returned, and business travel has grown dramatically,” said airport marketing executive Jim Pitts.
Budget Travel reported other signs of recovery:
Ø The city has been pumping state and federal reconstruction funds into tourism infrastructure and aggressively encouraging private development.
Ø The Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum was destroyed in the hurricane but a new building is underway.
Ø The popular Mary Mahoney’s old French House (fans include John Grisham and Denzel Washington) could not re-open until three months after the hurricane but it is now as popular as ever.
Ø Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, whose wife grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi, has a new restaurant at the Island View Casino Resort.
Ø One of the city’s newest additions is the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Biloxi.
Ø The Beauvoir Jefferson Davis Presidential Library and Home is due to re-open this summer on the 200th anniversary of the Confederate president’s birth.
Report by David Wilkening
