“Travel has taken on new meaning, after years of lost time and uncertainty” says New Orleans + Company CMO Mark Romig. “People aren’t looking for places to escape to. They’re looking for places to connect with others while rediscovering themselves.”
- 81% of people want to travel where they can immerse themselves in local cultures (AMEX 2022 Global Travel Trends report)
- Post-COVID, more than half of consumers are expecting to blend IRL and virtual experiences (2022 IBM Consumer study)
- 76% of travelers are willing to spend more on trips to boost their wellbeing (2021 AMEX Travel survey)
In a bid to entice connection seekers, the City of New Orleans has released an eight-minute, immersive virtual reality experience with its agency partner Dentsu Creative. The experience is designed for viewing on Oculus headsets, but is also accessible via YouTube.
This is New Orleans first foray using this technology medium.
“It’s an invitation to gather with our culture bearers—people who carry our city’s heritage as they shape who we are today and make way for those who’ll take us into the future,” says Romig of the experience. Participants can journey through dinner and tour the homes, studios and theaters of notable New Orleans entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, chefs, activists and more.
You can see the guest list below (and I’m happy to connect you with as many folks as you’d like to hear from):
- Chef Isaac Toups, Amanda Toups, BMike,My Nguyen, Stanton Moore and Demond Melancon.
- Ben Jaffe, Doreen Ketchens, Gladney, Joe Henry, Huong Pham and Leona Tate.
- Mason Hereford, Neal Bodenheimer, Samantha Fish, Arthur Roger and Ti Martin.
- Photographer Kyle Weeks, who has never been to New Orleans, was invited to capture portraits and candids of the meal.
- Dentsu Creative GCD Andrew Hunter is a NOLA native. He can talk to you about how “the effect of tourism marketing only works if it works for locals first” (Andrew has to go home and look locals in the eye and talk about what’s been created, after all).
“We’re showing what’s waiting in New Orleans in the most intimate and unscripted way possible, through the eyes of residents,” adds Romig. “And while Bourbon Street and beignets are rightfully some of the first things people think about when they hear New Orleans, we wanted to take people off the beaten path.”
The documentary-styled virtual reality experience delves into the origins of drum kits, as well as the vibrancy of the city’s Black Indian and Vietnamese fishing communities and its community-serving art scene.
2020 was declared the “worst year in tourism history” by the World Tourism Organization. The US Travel Association said business travel in 2022 is only roughly 75% of what it was in 2019—which may not fully recover until 2024—with leisure travel now exceeding pre-COVID levels. For New Orleans specifically, 2019 was a historic tourism year with 19 million visitors and over $10 billion in revenue coming into the city. By 2021, New Orleans reports rebounding to 15 million visitors.
New Orleans + Company conducted a multi-generational study in partnership with Prodege in March of 2022 to inform this initiative by accessing how people’s travel needs and prioritizes have shifted in the last two years:
- 95% of participants reported an openness to taking weekday leisure trips
- 96% of participants admitted they’ve been in a rut—either feeling burnt out or having a general sense that things weren’t going their way
- Beyond a greater desire to travel, the majority of participants desired scheduling shorter and closer-distance trips
“New Orleans is like another member of the family,” shares Co-Proprietor of Commander’s Palace, Ti Martin, at the dinner party. “People from other cities—it’s just where they live. For us, it really feels like another member of our family and we’ll do any damn thing for it.”
“What we do very well here is we give reason for people to come together. We give reason for communities to mingle and engage—whether it’s around food, celebrations, performances or art,” adds visual artist Brandan “BMike” Odums, who is also at the gathering. “What’s beautiful is our resilience as it’s displayed through our creativity.”
“Tourists want to rediscover the parts of themselves they lost over the last few years. They’re craving inspiration, which the people of New Orleans ooze in spades,” says Dentsu Creative GCD and NOLA native, Andrew Hunter. “‘Plus One’ uses VR to give tourists and early-adopters unprecedented access to those who give our city its soul. It pushes beyond the traditional use of the technology to create a narrative about what it means to be inspired by New Orleans’ creativity. And it positions the city as an innovation leader in the category. We’re immensely proud of the cultural heroes who came together for this historic dinner party.”
Discussion about this post