Schriever senior group told to stop confusing identity
October 25, 2011
Joseph Herbert Naquin
October 27, 2011
No official numbers have yet been released for the summer of 2011, but participants in the tourism industry contend that visitors are slowly making a return to the Tri-parish region and Louisiana as a whole following a series of devastating hurricanes in 2005 and 2008, and after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in April 2010.
“The thing about BP was that all the hotel rooms were taken up by Coast Guard and other people [working on oil spill containment and cleanup],” said A Cajun Man’s Swamp Tour owner Ron “Black” Guidry. “There were no rooms for tourists.”
The Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, contends that media images and reporting following the natural and manmade disasters stalled tourism by making damage seem more widespread than it really was.
Guidry stands as an example tourist entertainer and has been operating swamp tours from Bob’s Bayou Black Marina in Gibson and traveling former Shell canals and parts of Bayou Black for 24 years. He has seen the ups and downs, but contends that overall business has been good enough for him and his wife, Sonya, to make a living on income that has averaged $50,000 a year depending on the season. “She handles all the bookwork,” Guidry said. “I don’t worry about it.”
According to the Louisiana Office of Tourism, approximately $32 million in visitor spending was lost by the end of 2010 and is expected to earn a total $135 million through 2013.
However, LOT also stated that tourism losses are expected to be offset by gains from business-related visitors with approximately $269 million collected. Many of those business visitors also spend tourism dollars.
Guidry, a former Green Beret with the 101st Airborne Division and former Louisiana State Police officer, says he has done a variety of things, but working on his swamp tour has been the most enjoyable as he guides and entertains visitors from as far away as Russia, Denmark and Japan, as well as most of the United States during his canal and bayou run.
“The weather is the only thing that determines tours,” Guidry said of his business which relies heavily on word of mouth and links from Internet web sites.
Guidry, like many tourist industry participants, is a lifelong resident of where he works. “This is where I was born and raised, on Bayou Black,” he said.
Also an accomplished musician of traditional Cajun music, Guidry said he was traveling and promoting tourism a quarter century ago when the president of South Louisiana Bank offered to bring him home and set him up with his own vessel on which he could provide tours and entertain guests. “At first I told him, ‘No’ but then ‘Yes.’ I’ve never worked a day of my life since. It has all been a pleasure,” he said.
Guidry said swamp tours like his are the main attraction for many tourists from other parts of the world because of the one-of-a-kind natural environment of Louisiana. He added that most tours are also affordable. His are $25 for adults and $12 for children under the age of 12. A pricing survey found most swamp tours holding adult prices at $40 and some as high as $70.
On Guidry’s tours, the casual but learned Coast Guard certified captain offers a water tour on which he describes not only the loss of the floating land, but explains some of the culture and history, points out wildlife and describes environmental challenges for the area.
If the weather is warm enough and the wind is calm, alligators make appearances, and the captain also entertains his guests in song with his trusty accordion.
“Nothing but fun for the tourists,” Guidry said. “They have fun and I have more fun.”
An American Express spending tracker found that 2011 is a year when most consumers have focused on their financial well being. Travel tops the list of pursuits with 72 percent of those surveyed listing it as a priority. Historically during down economic times, domestic travel benefits as American tourists tend to remain closer to home.
Guidry confirmed that there are many locals who are unaware of the attractions in their own back yard.
A study released from LSU projected that the swamp tour industry could fully recover from the impact of hurricanes within the past six years by 2012.
Tourism offices in St. Mary and Lafourche parishes were unable to offer insight into visitor activity. The Houma Area Convention and Visitors Bureau offered statistics that indicate a slight improvement in recreational visitor activity this past summer from the previous year.
According to HACVB Communications Manager Kelly Gustafson, the past three summers saw a high in hotel room activity with 1,033 visitors during the months of June, July and August in 2009.
That number dropped to 851 in 2010, but during the summer of 2011 saw a slight rebound to 864, according to visitor’s center bureau.
“The visitor center registration numbers are acquired by visitors who sign in at our visitor’s center,” Gustafson said. Actual figures are expected to have been higher.
“The Houma Area Convention and Visitors Bureau continued to market the area to increase not only traditional summer visitors, but also to acquire group business by way of meetings, sports events and motor coach tours,” Gustafson said.
LOT officials declined to speculate on how local and out of state tourists have compared in numbers. At the same time, while early indications offer some sign of improvement overall tourism is expected to remain nearly $500 million below baseline projections.
Ron “Black” Guidry offers story and a song to tourists on his A Cajun Man’s Swamp Tour as well as a close-up look at wildlife and the natural surroundings of Terrebonne Parish.
