In Lafourche, tourism is a big deal

More festivals and continued strong marketing will mark Lafourche Parish’s quest for tourist dollars, the parish’s tourism commission said, seeking to build on a big outlay of money from tourists in the parish last year.

Tourists spent $77.3 million in Lafourche Parish in 2017, generating $10 million in local and state taxes Timothy Bush said during a presentation to the Parish Council last week.

Tourism, he noted, supports 560 jobs in Lafourche Parish.

Bush, who is also president of the commission, announced the results to the parish council, whose members, for the most part, strongly praised his efforts.

Bush said the parish earned roughly $575,000 in earned media publicity dollars, seen as inclusion in news or magazine stories, amounting to free advertising.

Lafourche was featured last year in over 25 regional and national publications such as: USA Today, Essence Online, the Travel Channel, Louisiana Road Trips, and Southern Hospitality Magazine,” Bush said.

His team also hosted eight travel writers over the past year.

Bush said the Lafourche Tourist Commission website, lacajunbayou.com, saw a 240 percent increase in visitors over last year, with 230,000 clicks.

“Prior to 2017, our website was drawing approximately 65,000 visitors annually. To see that figure change to 230,000 is quite astonishing,” Bush said.

Visitor information requests have spiked to 1,500, a 372 percent increase from 2016.

“We also generated 1,745 definite room nights last year,” he said.

Bush has broken visitors into three groups: the primary market, the secondary market and the emerging markets.

The primary markets are other areas of Louisiana: New Orleans and surrounding areas; Baton Rouge and Lafayette; North Louisiana and the state of Mississippi.

The secondary market is the state of Texas. and the emerging markets are Florida, California, New York and Alabama.

Other results from Expedia, showed that visitors planning to come to the parish, typically stay for only one night. And, they made that reservation seven days prior to their arrival.

Bush said that research shows that visitors aren’t planning really far in advance, and instead are looking for shorter getaway opportunities.

“So given the number of festivals and events that happen here during the spring and fall, we see this as an opportunity to go not only go after more of those visitors, and work to engage them to stay longer,”’he said.

Bush also outlined the commission’s marketing plan for 2018, which will bear a theme of “Unapologetically Cajun.”

Top priorities will include growing event related visitation, completion of the visitor center renovation project, and the development of a destination way-finding signage program.

Also, one of the new initiatives for 2018 will be the development of the Cajun Bayou Food Trail, which will feature local restaurants that serve Cajun and Louisiana inspired seafood and other dishes.

“Food is one of our most popular commodities as a destination so we are looking to leverage it more as part of what make Lafourche Parish Unapologetically Cajun,” Bush said.

Another goal is to generate 2,000 room nights in 2018. To achieve that, Bush is proposing to generate sales leads by: developing a family reunion planning workshop; create itineraries and packages centered on festivals and events; and increase awareness of interactive and hands-on activities down-the-bayou, through itineraries focused on cultural immersion experiences.

Bush is planning to achieve these goals with print and digital marketing.

“We believe that a focus on a travelers with in our drive marketing, along with elevating the story of our festival and events and continued strong marketing push, will help generate another positive year in tourism for the area,” he said.

HOWARD J. CASTAY | THE TIMES