New Orleans’ Tourism ‘Leaders’ Don’t Represent Our City.  It Shows.

The lack of people of color, women, and workers in leadership roles hurts New Orleans.

In early April, the Advocate newspaper held a ninety-minute forum on New Orleans’ tourism industry.  You might have heard about it, but you probably didn’t go—it cost $20, and was held at 8:30 AM on a Wednesday.  Dismissive of the needs of working people, attended by an almost entirely White crowd, and not worth the price tag, the event utterly failed to paint an accurate picture of tourism in New Orleans—but as a representation of tourism leadership, it was strikingly on brand.

Previously in this column we’ve discussed the extractive nature of our tourism economy, and the inequity inherent in a taxing structure that leads to a massive surplus for the Convention Center, but leaves city government struggling to fill basic needs.  A quick look at the current headlines will show that the Cantrell Administration is pushing hard to reach a better agreement for the city through the #fairshare campaign and legislative agenda.  But how did we end up with such an exploitative tourism industry in the first place? To begin to answer that, let’s look at the make-up of the Advocate’s 11 member panel.  Besides Peter Kovacs from the Advocate, John Pourciau from the City, and Amy Glovinsky from the Bureau of Governmental Research, there were 8 representatives from the tourism industry—Ron Forman (from the Audubon Nature Institute), Stephen Perry (New Orleans & Co), Evan Homes (SMG/Superdome), Kevin Dolliole (Armstrong International Airport), Michael Sawaya (Convention Center), Jonah Langenback (WWII Museum), Dan Real (Ceaser’s) and Barry Kern (Kern Studios).  Of the tourism representatives, ALL were men, and 7 of 8 were white (Dolliole is African-American).  In a city that is only 33% white, white men don’t represent 90% of the tourism industry’s leadership by accident.  It’s an old boy’s club, chummy and unchallenged.

Still, despite the clear optics, it wouldn’t be fair to characterize an entire industry from just one panel—so lets’ take a look at the demographics of each tourism industries Board of Directors/Trustees.  Of the six organizations where this information is publically available (Ceaser’s and Kern Studios do not have this information posted), every single Board is both majority white and majority male.  Both the Convention Center and New Orleans and Co. have ENTIRELLY white Executive Boards, and the WWII Museum’s Executive Board of Trustees is entirely white men.  In fact, the only tourism-focused organization with a Board that is majority people of color is the New Orleans Multicultural Tourism Network (NOMTM)—which received just 2.5% of the tax revenue as New Orleans and Co. did in 2015.  Again, that’s not a typo. New Orleans and Co, with an all white Executive Board got $16.6 million, the NOMTM, with a majority person of color Board, got $400,000.

So, how does the overwhelmingly white leadership of the tourism industry actually impact the city?  On the confines of the panel, this led to some absurd little moments, like the fact that the first mention of New Orleans’ culture was through the context of the World War II Museum, and that the panelists found a way to talk about Superman, but not second-line parades.  But then there was Barry Kern saying “We have all this great culture, but we also have, unfortunately, a culture of crime”, and Stephen Perry referring to the Mayor’s Office as his “opposition”, lecturing audience members about how they were “absolutely incorrect”, and taking subtle and not so subtle digs at New Orleans (which has happened both at this particular forum and elsewhere in the press).  What happens when the mostly white leaders of the city’s biggest industry have a borderline contemptuous view of the city’s elected leaders, and brand the city’s majority Black population as potential criminals? You get an industry that is happy to provide over $20 million for a citywide surveillance network, but fights against providing money for infrastructure.  You get a Convention Center Board that votes against mandating a living wage for contract workers, but is fine with doing business with a hotel financier that builds private prisons.  You get four members of the Convention Center Board also siting on the Board of New Orleans and Co., but not a single musician, venue owner, service industry worker representative, or traditional culture bearer sitting on either.  You get a systematic denial of opportunity, leading to reduced economic viability for thousands and thousands of industry workers.

Unlike economic benefits, this disenfranchisement trickles its was down throughout the industry.  A recent study from the New Orleans Data Center confirms that workers of color in the service industry generally work less desirable jobs, often away from the public, for less money.  Pay for musicians remains unsustainably low, and the industry has a history of using photos of culture bearers without their consent, and providing minimal to no compensation for their use.   Recently, the official New Orleans tourism account tweeted out a picture of Mardi Gras Indians praising their “costumes” rather than suits, a moment of disrespect that could have been prevented had there been even a single member of the cultural community on staff. 

So what can we do about it?  First, let’s recognize the good actors.  Besides the shamefully underfunded Multicultural Tourism Network, the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corporation has been actively trying to support the workers and the cultural community—they’ve been responsive to demands for healthcare for the service industry, have a small fund to assist the Masking and Social Aid and Pleasure Club community, and recently launched a marketing campaign prominently featuring the Caramel Curves.  It’s not enough, but it’s a start and should be encouraged to continue and expand.  But how do we create change on the larger organizations—the ‘boy’s club’ represented at the Advocate’s forum?  It’s going to be tough, but Mayor Cantrell’s progress with the #fairshare campaign shows there is potential for change.  From a grassroots level, there are still some push points for change.  Most of the Boards of the organizations, New Orleans and Co., and the Convention Center included, are made up of political appointees.  While this makes them less responsive to the public, they are still part of the political process, so good nominees can be pushed forward, and bad nominees protested.  A good place to start would be demanding representatives from the cultural community and service industry be placed on several boards, combined with a push for greater racial and gender parity throughout all leadership positions.  Most importantly, ground level organizing and cross-sector partnerships are going to be key.  An examination of each organization’s board shows the ‘leaders’ are all working together already, so so should we!  They may have the money, but we have the numbers.

We know that New Orleans culture is more than a product to be sold to visitors; it’s equal parts identity, history, perseverance, and joy.  While the current leadership of the tourism industry fails to understand that supporting the people who create the culture will lead to a failure of the industry, the traditional culture bearers, service industry workers, and musicians do, and don’t need a panel to explain it.  When leadership fails, it’s time for new leaders—so let’s get to work.