Image: PCL
That may appear optimistic in light of the current devastation. Yet it’s a reasonable estimate of the time it could take to clean up and restore power and water.
A crucial point for tourism is that the historic heart of the city, the French Quarter, is largely unscathed.
The UK office of the New Orleans CVB and Louisiana Office of Tourism reports 10 hotels in the Quarter reopened on September 5 to house engineers and officials involved in the relief effort.
UK sales director Jody Hanson said: “We would hope the minimum time would be three months – possibly going into January. We’re hoping independent tourists will be coming back then.
“The historic district is on the highest ground and is least affected. The convention hotels are fine. The devastated areas are suburban.
“It’s the people who have to build their lives again. A lot have lost their homes.”
New Orleans’ airport is shut to all commercial traffic, and the city will remain closed to visitors until the clean up is completed.
But Hanson added: “Our message to tour operators and consumers is, ‘don’t cancel, just defer’.”
Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia UK representative David Nicholson is equally optimistic.
“I strongly believe there will be a Mardi Gras in New Orleans in February 2006,” he said. Virgin Holidays US product Angus Bond echoed the optimism, but added a note of caution.
“Hopefully, the city will be up and running for Mardi Gras,” he said. “Realistically, it’s the displacement of the workforce that is the issue – the people who make the hotels tick over.”
Whatever the timeframe, the reaction of holidaymakers and the trade has been ‘astounding’, according to Hanson. “We’ve had some amazing e-mails and calls from people saying they still want to go. We’re suggesting other routes in the south.”
Bond said: “We’ve been contacting those booked up to the end of October. They can cancel with a full refund, defer travel or amend the booking.
“A lot are deferring to 2006, which speaks volumes for New Orleans. We’re also calling people who are booked for the winter to make sure they comprehend the situation, and offering them a full refund or chance to book another holiday. In the short term it would be wrong for an operator to take people to the area. So we’re looking to change things for the months ahead.
“Rather than take people on flydrives down to Mississippi and New Orleans from Atlanta, we’re thinking of going east to the tip of Florida, north through the Carolinas, and back round to Memphis and Nashville.”
Outside New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast will take longer to restore. Nicholson said: “The Gulf Coast is obliterated 50-60 miles inland. It’s like a war zone.”
This is the area of Biloxi, ‘Las Vegas by the sea’, where gambling was legalised in the early 1990s so long as the casinos were on water. As a result, they were built on floating pontoons.
“The pontoons were lifted up by Hurricane Katrina and dumped,” said Nicholson.
“We’re telling tour operators and those trying to rearrange travel, skip New Orleans and add a night in Memphis and a night in Atlanta. If clients want a beach, they can head east to the Georgia coast. Memphis, Nashville, the Smoky Mountains are unaffected.”
Nicholson is convinced it will take longer for Biloxi and its hinterland to recover than New Orleans. “We’re talking a year or more. The infrastructure is flattened on the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” he said.
The authorities have already said the law will change so the casinos are rebuilt on land. “They have to rebuild,” said Nicholson. “Tourism is the economic engine of the region.”
