New Orleans News | Press

New Orleans' monthly Media Update covers the latest travel and tourism developments around town. Please email communications@neworleans.com to be added to our media mailing list.

What’s New in New Orleans Hospitality Industry – 2022

2022 has been a strong year for New Orleans’ most important industry, marked by the successful return of major events and hotel tax collections at an all-time high. We kicked off the year with the Allstate Sugar Bowl, Mardi Gras and the NCAA Men’s Final Four. Then we moved into Zurich Classic, Navy Week, French Quarter Fest and Jazz Fest. This summer, we hosted the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience, the Essence Festival of Culture, Tales of the Cocktail, Satchmo Summer Fest and more.  

The fall has seen NOLAxNOLA, Beignet Fest, the National Fried Chicken Fest, Crescent City Blues and BBQ Fest, Halloween/Krewe of Boo, Treme Fall Fest, Po Boy Fest and much more. Some festivals and restaurants are reporting best-ever attendance in 2022 …not only the best since COVID, but the best ever, which is a great sign for the resurgence of our cultural economy. 

AWARDS/HONORS:

• New Orleans & Company earned the prestigious gold statuette for Best Culinary Destination – U.S.; Silver statuette in Best City Destination – Domestic; and bronze statuette in Best Tourism Board – US at the 8th annual Travvy Awards. New Orleans was also awarded the “Most Desirable City” – Rest of World - by Wanderlust Magazine at the Wanderlust Travel Awards in the United Kingdom. 
• ​For more information about the awards click here. 
• Windsor Court Hotel was voted the No. 1 hotel in New Orleans by Travel + Leisure readers in this year’s World’s Best Awards. Every year Travel + Leisure shares the World's Best Awards survey asking readers to weigh in on travel experiences around the globe.  
• To view Travel + Leisure’s 5 Best Hotels in New Orleans click here.   
• Four Seasons New Orleans and Hotel Saint Vincent have been named to the Travel + Leisure It List 2022, the 100 Best New Hotels in the World.  
• The Peacock Room at Kimpton Hotel Fontenot was awarded Best Bar in the Hemispheres Magazine 2022 Readers’ Choice Awards. Also featured, the Jazz & Heritage Festival was named the Best Cultural Festival.  
• The Audubon Zoo has been named one of the 14 best zoos in America by Travellers Worldwide.   
• Four Seasons New Orleans and Hotel Saint Vincent have been named to the Travel + Leisure It List 2022, the 100 Best New Hotels in the World.   
• The Grammy Awards announced the list of nominees for the 2023 awards. Several Louisiana artists including PJ Morton, Tank and the Bangas, Lil Wayne, and Dr. John were nominated. The 65th Grammy Awards will air live on Sunday, February 5.  

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• 49th Annual Bayou Classic, this historic rivalry between Grambling State University and Southern University, returns to the Caesars Superdome Saturday, November 26. 
• ​The Battle of the Bands, between the Southern University “Human Jukebox” Marching Bnad and the Grambling State University Marching Band will happen the night before the game on Friday, November 25 in the Caesars Superdome starting at 6:00 pm.  
• Celebration in the Oaks, a holiday festivity for over 30 years, returns November 24 and runs through January 1.  
• The Park is transformed into 25 acres of dazzling lights and breathtaking, festive displays. The Park, Botanical Garden, Storyland and Carousel Gardens Amusement Park are all captured with hundreds of thousands of lights to create a winter wonderland here in the Big Easy. 
• Luna Fête, one-of-a-kind lights display along the Convention Center Pedestrian Park, returns nightly December 15-18 and is free for attendees. Nearby buildings are engulfed in video projection-mapping while other areas are decorated with light activations and sculptures. 
• The 9th Annual NOLA ChristmasFest will open at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center from December 21-30. Holiday décor, 300,000 square feet of carnival rides, ice slides, Santa Claus and even an ice-skating rink will be available to attendees. 
• Caroling at Jackson Square, a beloved New Orleans holiday tradition that takes place the Sunday before Christmas Day. This year the caroling will be on Sunday, December 18, admission is free and the gates at Jackson Square will open at 6:30 pm. 
• The 71st Miss Universe Pageant on January 14, 2023, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Miss Universe will bring contestants and their delegations from 90 countries, fans, celebrity judges and performers, and hundreds of journalists and global influencers to New Orleans for more than a week to support our cultural economy.  
• 2022 Festival Calendar Highlights:   
• For a full list of events, click here. 

ATTRACTIONS:

• Expressions of America premiered at the National World War II Museum on Veterans Day Weekend to rave reviews. Generously presented by the Bob & Dolores Hope Foundation, Expressions of America uniquely combines the latest outdoor projection technology with wartime letters and oral histories from the Museum’s collection to allow audiences to experience the stories of the WWII generation like never before. 
• Disney to open New Orleans themed projects both in the parks and on "the big screen."
• A New Orleans vibe will take over the recreated “Haunted Mansion,” a New Orleans-set supernatural comedy. 
• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, based off the New Orleans-set movie “The Princess and the Frog”, will take the place of Splash Mountain in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. 

HOTELS:

• Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, which opened in May of 2021 and home to the acclaimed Peacock Room, announced the new property expansion will be finished in January 2023. The expansion included a new restaurant, King, 33 new guestrooms and suites as well as over 12,000 square feet of meeting and event space.  
• ​King, designed by MARKZEFF, will feature a traditional French brasserie with a Mediterranean spin.  
• The Whitney Hotel, now registered as a National Historic Landmark, is set to reopen in Quarter 1 of 2023 following a renovation of the entire building as well as the addition of a restaurant, bar and flower shop.   
• The Rubenstein family, known for their legendary men’s clothing store Rubensteins on the corner of Canal Street and St. Charles Avenue, announced they are turning the upstairs of the building into a 40-room boutique hotel called the Rubenstein Hotel.  
• The hotel is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year with an opening in February 2023.

NEW FLIGHTS:

• Breeze Airways announced new direct services from Pittsburgh and Raleigh-Durham to New Orleans starting in February 2023. There will also be one stop services to and from Hartford, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island beginning in February.  

COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY:

• The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has achieved its first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, a globally recognized symbol of sustainability achievement and leadership. 
• This official certification from the U.S. Green Building Council makes the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center the largest LEED-certified project in Louisiana, the largest convention center project in the U.S. certified under LEED v4.1 Operations and Maintenance and the first convention center in the world to be awarded initial certification under Anchor LEED v4.1 O+M.  
• The latest version of LEED certification, v4.1, raises the bar on building standards for energy efficiency, water conservation, indoor air quality and waste reduction. 

New Orleans & Company is the tourism and hospitality industry’s official destination sales, marketing and trade organization, responsible for driving over $10 billion of diverse annual business to the regional cultural economy. We attract leisure and cultural travel, business meetings, conventions, weddings, festivals, sporting and special events to New Orleans, considered the cultural capital of the south, in a highly competitive global environment. Founded in 1960, New Orleans & Company is committed to celebrating the richness of our culture while creating jobs, building careers, and enhancing the quality of life for every New Orleanian. For more, please call 504-566-5011, visit Neworleans.com, Facebook at New Orleans & Company, or Twitter and Instagram @Visit New Orleans.

Media Contact
MaryBeth Romig
Associate Vice President, Communications & Public Relations
mbromig@neworleans.com, 504-556-5050