New Orleans

Down in New Orleans, you’ll discover the origins of jazz and a burgeoning culture unlike any other on Earth. The relaxed mood of the riverfront South has been infused with French refinement, Spanish flair, and African-American vitality to produce something more than the sum of its parts. Though severely damaged by Katrina, “Nawlins” remains Louisiana’s biggest city and one of the most popular tourist attractions in the United States.

“Let the good times roll,” as they say in the Big Easy, and you can too with a chill walk along Bourbon Street, a hot Dixieland band, and even hotter Creole food. Mardi Gras may be the city’s calling card, but it is just one day out of the year in New Orleans, which is humid and muggy.

Take a riverboat ride down the Mississippi, have some beignets, and watch the Saints march in. However, when the time comes to go, you, too, will understand what it is to miss New Orleans.

New Orleans is recognized for a variety of things, including its famed Creole cuisine, copious booze, many musical genres, adjacent marshes and plantations, architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries, antiques, LGBT pride, streetcars, and museums. New Orleans, dubbed the Big Easy, has long had a reputation as an adult-oriented city. The city, however, has a plethora of activities for families with children and those interested in culture and the arts. Due to its European heritage, it is a city with a predominantly Roman Catholic population.

Famous events like Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest attract millions of people and are the two times of year when reservations must be made far in advance to guarantee a hotel. Additionally, the city hosts numerous smaller festivals and gatherings, including the French Quarter Festival, the Creole Tomato Festival, the Satchmo SummerFest, the magazine’s Essence Festival, Halloween parades and costume balls, Saint Patrick’s Day and Saint Joseph’s Day parades, and Southern Decadence. Almost every occasion serves as an excuse for a parade, a party, and live music, and in New Orleans, most events have a Mardi Gras theme throughout the year. As the saying goes, New Orleanians are either preparing, attending, or recuperating from a party. Down with the party!

It is a city rich in culture, with a fusion of French, Cajun, and Spanish influences. At night, you may see some voodoo activities. The trolley trips are enjoyable, and many of the businesses include one-of-a-kind cultural art pieces, such as the blue dog collection.

TOURIST AND CONVENTION BUSINESS

Tourism is also a significant part of the city’s economy. Perhaps more prominent than any other sector, the tourism and convention economy in New Orleans is a $5.5 billion behemoth that generates 40% of the city’s tax income. In 2004, the hotel industry employed 85,000 people in New Orleans, making it the city’s largest economic sector by employment. Additionally, the city is home to the World Cultural Economic Forum (WCEF). The forum, which is held annually in the New Orleans Morial Convention Center, aims to promote cultural and economic development prospects by strategically convening cultural ambassadors and leaders from across the globe. The first WCEF was held in October 2008.

According to local legend, New Orleans has four distinct seasons: summer, hurricane, Christmas, and Mardi Gras. Summer is unquestionably the longest season; for almost half of the year, from late April to the beginning of October, the days are either hot or rainy, or hot and rainy. Winters are typically brief and moderate, although rare cold blasts may startle tourists who believe the city enjoys a year-round tropical environment. Due to the heavy humidity, chilly snaps may seem fairly penetrating. Snow is so uncommon that even a thin dusting of flakes will cause the majority of inhabitants to stop what they’re doing and gaze; they’ll joyfully exhibit the phenomena to local youngsters who are too young to recall the last time the city saw snow. If you chance to be in town during a rare freezing event, be aware that the majority of residents have no knowledge how to drive on icy or snow-covered roads.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30 and encompasses the whole Gulf of Mexico. September is the busiest month.

The greatest time to visit New Orleans, according to some, is between late November and early June. However, New Orleans has events throughout the year. Even during the hottest portion of the summer, a worthwhile visit is possible: start your day early and perform your outdoor sightseeing in the morning. The rich indigenous flora may provide an abundance of vibrant blooms. In the afternoon and evening, retire to air-conditioning; visit a museum, take a leisurely stroll to a café or restaurant, or have a nap in your hotel. Remain outdoors until the sun sets. After nightfall, the night shift of flora takes over; particularly in older areas like Esplanade Ridge, Carrollton, and the Garden District, which are densely forested with night-blooming jasmine, the sweet, sweetly perfumed air may be nearly overpowering.

New Orleans is situated at 29°57′53′′N 90°4′14′′W (29.964722, -90.070556) on the Mississippi River’s banks, roughly 105 miles (169 kilometers) upstream from the Gulf of Mexico. The city has a total area of 350 square miles (910 km2), of which 169 square miles (440 km2) is land and 181 square miles (470 km2) is water (52 percent). Orleans Parish is the smallest parish in Louisiana in terms of land area.

The city is situated in the Mississippi River Delta on the Mississippi River’s east and west banks, just south of Lake Pontchartrain. The riverbank region is defined by hills and hollows.

New Orleans has always had to address hurricane danger, but the hazards are much larger now as a result of human-caused coastal erosion. Since the turn of the twentieth century, Louisiana’s shoreline (including many of its barrier islands) has been estimated to have lost 2,000 square miles (5,000 km2), which previously sheltered New Orleans from storm surge. The Army Corps of Engineers has implemented significant levee repair and storm protection measures to safeguard the city after Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans is home to one of the world’s biggest and busiest ports, and metropolitan New Orleans is a maritime hub. Additionally, the New Orleans area is home to a sizable amount of the nation’s oil refining and petrochemical output, as well as a white-collar business hub for onshore and offshore petroleum and natural gas production.

New Orleans is a hub of higher education, with over 50,000 students enrolled in the region’s eleven two- and four-year colleges. Tulane Institution, a top-50 research university, is situated in New Orleans’ Uptown area. Metropolitan New Orleans is a significant regional health care center and is home to a modest but internationally competitive industrial sector. The central city is home to a thriving entrepreneurial creative industries sector and is well-known for cultural tourism. Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.) serves as the regional economic development focal point, coordinating efforts between the Louisiana Department of Economic Development and the many parochial business development organizations.

PORT

New Orleans was created as a strategically positioned trade entrepôt and continues to be a vital transit hub and distribution center for maritime commerce. The Port of New Orleans is the fifth-largest port in the United States in terms of cargo handled, and the second-largest in Louisiana, after the Port of South Louisiana. It is the 12th biggest port in the United States in terms of cargo value. The Port of South Louisiana, which is also located in the New Orleans metropolitan region, is the busiest in the world in terms of bulk tonnage. When coupled with the Port of New Orleans, it creates the country’s fourth-largest port system in terms of volume handled. Numerous shipbuilding, shipping, logistics, freight forwarding, and commodities brokerage enterprises are headquartered in or have a large presence in metropolitan New Orleans. Intermarine, Bisso Towboat, Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, Trinity Yachts, Expeditors International, Bollinger Shipyards, IMTT, International Coffee Corporation, Boasso America, Transoceanic Shipping, Transportation Consultants Inc., Dupuy Storage & Forwarding, and Silocaf are just a few examples. Folgers operates the world’s biggest coffee roasting factory in New Orleans East.

As like Houston, New Orleans is positioned by the Gulf of Mexico and its many oil rigs. Louisiana ranks fifth in the United States in terms of oil output and eighth in terms of reserves. It owns two of the four Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) storage sites located in Cameron and Iberville parishes: West Hackberry in Cameron and Bayou Choctaw in Iberville. Other infrastructure includes 17 petroleum refineries with a total capacity of almost 2.8 million barrels per day (450,000 m3/d), the second biggest in the country after Texas. Among the several ports in Louisiana is the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), which can accommodate ultra-large oil tankers.

Given the volume of oil imported, Louisiana is home to numerous major pipelines that supply the nation with crude oil (Exxon, Chevron, BP, Texaco, Shell, Scurloch-Permian, Mid-Valley, Calumet, Conoco, Koch Industries, Unocal, United States Department of Energy, Locap); product (TEPPCO Partners, Colonial, Plantation, Explorer, Texaco, Collins); and liquefied petroleum gas (Texaco, Collins (Dixie, TEPPCO, Black Lake, Koch, Chevron, Dynegy, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners,Dow Chemical Company, Bridgeline, FMP, Tejas, Texaco, UTP). Several major energy corporations, including Royal Dutch Shell, Eni, and Chevron, maintain regional offices in the city or its outskirts. Numerous other energy producers and oilfield services companies also have their headquarters in the city or region, and the sector also supports a sizable professional services sector comprised of specialized engineering and design firms, as well as a term office for the federal government’s Minerals Management Service.