By: Brittany Racca
The Iberia Parish Convention & Visitors Bureau will celebrate National Travel and Tourism Week May 5-11, 2019.
Tourism Week Info:
The first full week of May is annually recognized as National Travel and Tourism Week, a tradition first celebrated in 1984, and established by a congressional joint resolution passed in 1983. Each year, localized events are presented in cities, states and travel businesses nationwide to champion the power of travel, and generate tremendous exposure for all the good that travel inspires.
"Tourism continues to be a major industry in the state in regards to generating funds and here in Iberia Parish we can see the ripple effects in our increased visitor traffic just in time for the 240th anniversary of New Iberia," said Fran Thibodeaux, executive director of Iberia Parish Convention and Visitors Bureau. "In recent years visitors spent $40 million in Iberia Parish and contributed $3.7 million and $1.43 million, respectively, to state and local coffers."
Iberia Parish Accolades:
Iberia Parish has earned numerous national accolades within the last year:
- The World Championship Gumbo Cookoff, which is turning 30 this year, was named “most heated competition in Louisiana” by Southern Living
- Tabasco was featured on Samantha Brown’s “Places to Love” and Forbes.com
- Our very own Pierre Shadeaux was mentioned in Garden & Gun and Time Magazine
- Iberia Parish CVB’s “James Lee Burke’s Iberia” self-guided brochure was featured in the New York Times
- New York Times best-selling author James Lee Burke just released his 22nd book in the Dave Robicheaux series, The New Iberia Blues, set in New Iberia. The New York Times ranked the novel number four on its new release list.
New Offerings:
Avery Island, the birthplace of Tabasco, was listed on the National Register in October 2018. The company’s president and chief executive, Anthony Simmons, says the historic designation comes the same year of the 150th anniversary of Tabasco and the 200th anniversary of his family’s settlement on the island.
As part of i
ts 150th anniversary celebration, Iberia Parish unveiled with the Iberia African American Historical Society a state historical marker commemorating Emma Wakefield-Paillet, the first female African American physician in Louisiana, on November 3, 2018, on Main Street New Iberia.
Shadows-on-the-Teche, Bayou Teche Museum and Konriko Rice Mill launched the New Iberia Historic District Pass, which offers discounted admission to all three attractions.
Church Alley Park & Bike Trail is now open downtown and has hosted new events for yearly festivals like Books Along the Teche Literary Festival. Rebecca Wells, author of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood was the 2019 Great Southern Writer. Shadows-on-the-Teche's Plein Air competition celebrated its most successful year in art sales and the Louisiana Lao New Year Festival broke new attendance records.
Main Street New Iberia also saw new seasonal events like Taunt Na Na’s Trade Days, and business openings like Preservation Bar and Grill, and Cane River Pecan Company’s retail location where customers can sample and purchase their many flavored pecan specialty products, including boudin pie.
This spring, the Jeanerette Museum, in cooperation with Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH), examined water as an environmental necessity and an important cultural element with “Water/Ways," its traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian Museum.
National Travel and Tourism Week is an annual tradition for the U.S. travel community. It’s a time when travel and tourism professionals across the country unite to celebrate the value travel holds for our economy, businesses and personal well-being. Thanks to Iberia Parish’s successful endeavors and collaborations, the experience we have created has become a top destination in Louisiana, that will always look to tomorrow for a new story.
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