The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival celebrates 40 years of music with performances April 24-26 and April 30-May 3. The French Quarter Festival is scheduled for April 17-19.
One new event taking place this year during the French Quarter festival is the Louisiana premiere of the opera Cabildo, written in 1932 by American composer Amy Beach. The April 18 performance will take place in the courtyard of the Cabildo, a historic government building that is now a museum. Admission will be free.
Tourism to New Orleans usually slows down in the summer, but the industry is expected to get a boost from seven major conventions booked for June and July.
"It's the biggest June and July we've ever had," said Steve Perry, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Overall, convention business in the city is projected to be down 5-7 per cent this year, but Perry said that's actually good news compared with other cities.
"You take cities like Las Vegas or Orlando, they're looking at 12-30 per cent drops," he said.
Tourism is the No. 2 industry in Louisiana and the top industry in New Orleans, where it generates $5 billion US in visitor spending and $250 million to $300 million in tax revenues, according to the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Meanwhile Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu says crime in New Orleans -- or the perception of it -- is the No. 1 inhibitor in building tourism in the city, even though crime statistics for 2008 released by the New Orleans Police Department show a drop in all categories of crime except auto theft.
Murder was down almost 15 per cent. Total crime for the year, compared with 2007, dropped by 6.76 per cent.
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