New Orleans confidence in our ability to execute at an excellent level, and that industry is a small world. People talk to each other.”
The academic ecosystem underpins that credibility. Louisiana State University and Tulane both host major medical education programmes in the city. Xavier University runs one of the most significant pharmacy schools in the American South and has produced more African-American undergraduates who went on to medical school than any other institution in the country.
The international dimension of this sector is particularly striking. Turner notes that it is not unusual for a single medical meeting in New Orleans to draw delegates from over 40 countries. Among the confirmed bookings is a major haematology congress in December, which is specifically routing an Air France service to accommodate the size of its French delegation.
Navigating international headwinds Inbound travel to the United States has faced headwinds from shifting political sentiment, and the Canadian market – historically one of New Orleans’ strongest sources of corporate and association business – has slowed. Turner acknowledges broader economic uncertainty is also affecting delegate attendance projections.
But the response has been adaptation rather than retreat. New Orleans & Company was present at IMEX Frankfurt in May, where Turner reports consistent excitement from the international incentive travel market. Leger attended the City Nation Place conference in Vancouver.
“ The sentiment on the ground is often more nuanced than the headline numbers,” Leger says. The domestic market is compensating in part, with leisure travel strengthening and regional business events showing resilience.
On the policy front, Leger’ s positions on the US Travel Association executive board and the US Department of Commerce Travel and Tourism Advisory
Board give him direct access to advocate for the industry. He welcomes recent investment in FAA and border security personnel, while acknowledging there is significantly more work to be done to make international travel frictionless.
Vision 2035: A different kind of destination strategy Perhaps the most distinctive element of New Orleans’ positioning is what its leadership deliberately chose not to do. The city’ s Vision 2035 strategic plan is not a tourism masterplan. It is, in Leger’ s framing, a community vision plan, built around making New Orleans a great place to live, to work, to learn and to invest in. Tourism and business events sit at the end of that sequence, not the beginning.
That reframing changes who sits at the table. Economic development bodies, the City of New Orleans, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, and regional partners across parish lines are all part of the coalition, because the plan’ s goals around transport connectivity, neighbourhood investment and infrastructure are shared ones. The riverfront development is the proof of concept: designed as civic space first, visitor attraction second, and all the more compelling to visitors as a result.
For the business events community, the practical implication is a destination that is investing in itself for reasons that go beyond the convention calendar, and whose residents, as a result, are active stakeholders in its success.
Infrastructure and connectivity on the rise Planners looking at New Orleans for 2026 and beyond will find a physical landscape in motion. The River District development, immediately adjacent to the Convention Centre, is accelerating, with the Omni Hotel under construction, and boutique hotel development continuing in parallel. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport has launched a 20-year master plan with a new terminal and expansion to be delivered in phases over the next seven years. Airlines are driving that expansion themselves, with Frontier and Breeze having stepped in following low-cost carrier consolidation, and further route growth anticipated. The headline booking for business events professionals to note is IPW 2027. North America’ s premier inbound travel trade show returns to New Orleans a decade after the city last hosted it in 2016, with over 5,000 attendees expected and 2,000 buyers. The event is estimated to generate some $ 5.5bn in future travel bookings for US destinations. n
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