Visitation from UK to Louisiana continues to grow

Wednesday, Jul 31, 2024 0

Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser and the Louisiana Office of Tourism (LOT) announce Louisiana saw continued increases in visitation and visitor spending in 2023.

Louisiana received over half a million total international visitors in 2023, seeing a 45% increase in visitation from 2022. The United Kingdom emerged as the second largest visitor market to Louisiana, with 65,800 visitors last year, an excellent 14% increase from 2022.

“It’s exciting to see the increases to visitation and spending in Louisiana as we work to get back to record breaking numbers prior to the pandemic,” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. “I’m especially pleased to see the increase in numbers from international visitors. We know international visitors stay longer, visit more places and spend more money, making them extremely important to the economic impact of travel to the state. These increases are despite the challenges of increasing travel costs.”

“Through our proactive marketing and promotion of the state, not only domestically, but internationally, we expect to continue to see a steady return of visitors,” said Lt. Governor Nungesser. “People are excited to return to travel and experience all the ways to Feed Your Soul in Louisiana – and we’re just getting started.”

Neil Tagliavini Jones, Chief Account and Marketing Officer for Louisiana Office of Tourism said “The continued growth of U.K visitation to Louisiana year on year validates the ongoing investment and presence in the UK & Ireland and is a testament to the passion and energy that our state partners bring when they meet with our industry colleagues and consumers. Louisiana continues to provide unrivalled experiences and memorable moments for visitors, and we look forward to continuing this trend over the coming years.”

LOT’s involvement in the U.K Market in 2023 included consumer activations at Waterloo Station and participation in the National Geographic Food Festival in London, featuring interactive and immersive campaigns to target U.K travellers to visit Louisiana.