New Orleans

Birthplace of jazz, the blues and the po’boy sandwich, New Orleans is a town built on having a good time. “Laissez le bon temps rouler,” the Zydeco band leader yells as he starts another set. “Lagniappe,” the chef says with a flourish as he completes preparations for a feast of crawfish and jambalaya. “Throw me something, mister,” bellows the crowd as the Mardi Gras floats ease down St. Charles Avenue to the rhythm of the drums and the melodies of the horns. Everywhere you go in New Orleans you will find enthusiasm for food, dancing, music, parades and life itself.

This kind of joie de vivre is why New Orleans is one of the top tourism and convention destinations in the United States. In addition to world–class convention facilities that can cater to any size group and any level of sophistication, the Crescent City itself is the major attraction. No other city exhibits cultures so varied, yet intricately blended. Influenced by the Creole founders who brought their French sensibility to the Vieux Carre; the American, British and Irish merchants who built mansions in the Garden District, the Cajuns who moved to the surrounding swampland from Nova Scotia; the voodoo still practiced by people in and outside the city, as well as the constant traffic along the mighty Mississippi, New Orleans overflows with history, interesting people, great food, sensual experiences, ghosts, music and color.