NEW ORLEANS MAYOR HAILS MARDI GRAS AS A SUCCESS

Posted on 02/16/2016 | About New Orleans, Louisiana

The elaborate costumes have been put away, city streets were cleaned (within two hours of the end of parades) and Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport saw a seven-year high in the number of passengers travelling through the airport. From a decline in arrests to a rise in airport passengers, Mayor Mitch Landrieu last week hailed the Carnival season in New Orleans, which ended on Ash Wednesday, as a success.

However, rates for hotel occupancy showed a dip this year compared with last year, according to the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. The tourism agency released numbers Thursday after surveying hotels. The bureau found that hotel occupancy was down over the six days between Friday and Ash Wednesday, with a nine percent drop on Mardi Gras and four percent dip on Lundi Gras, the day before Fat Tuesday. Kristian Sonnier, a bureau spokesman, said possible reasons for the drop were that final weekend of Carnival fell on Super Bowl weekend and that Mardi Gras came early and did not coincide with spring break college crowds. Another reason, he said, may be the slowdown in the oil and natural gas industry because of low oil prices.