NEW ORLEANS—Although the once-thriving tourist industry of the Crescent City is now muted, at the heart of its recovery are the stubborn hopes of business owners and longtime locals who are working to rebuild.
Yet even with die-hard locals who refuse to give up and leave, New Orleans is still a shadow of its former self. It is ravaged in some areas by traces of Hurricane Katrina's waters and winds, and in other places by its after-effects of a smaller population and less income.
For most businesses, even in the heart of the tourism industry, recovery has been an uphill battle now nearly two years in the making.
All along the streets of the French Quarter, the center of the tourism magnet that used to drive this city, shops stand idle as business owners and staff try to keep themselves busy—and optimistic. But they are finding it difficult after two years.
"It's going to take a long time for it to come back," said Stephen Kornovich, who owns a tourist goods shop called Praline Connection in the French Quarter. "Since I am fully dependent on tourism, my recovery is going to be slower than others."
Other types of ventures outside of the city have been affected, too. Cajun Encounters, a locally owned business situated about 40 minutes outside of New Orleans proper, runs eco-friendly swamp tours. Deep in the swamps of Louisiana, the tour company, which has been featured on NBC and CBS, puts visitors in touch with local wildlife—including scores of "friendly" alligators.
But even Cajun Encounters' unique services have been hard pressed to draw the kind of crowds they did pre-Katrina, surprisingly making the staff more grateful than ever for each person who comes on a tour.
Ted Gauthier, or "Captain Ted" as he is known on the Cajun Encounters tours that he runs, says the tragedy of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has taught him and his coworkers to treasure every customer.
Before the city was evacuated in 2005, the company was running boatloads of tourists into the swamps several times a day, and often many at once. Today, the number hovers at four tours a day, and sometimes the boats are not full. Yet Gauthier says they are still grateful that anyone has come back post-Katrina.
"I remember the first trip I did after Hurricane Katrina was with seven people," Gauthier recalls. "When I pulled up to the dock, I made sure to say, 'Not only do I want to thank ya'll for coming on this swamp tour, but I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming to New Orleans.' I guess Katrina makes you do a lot of things different. A house, you can rebuild a house. A city, we could rebuild a city. This [rebuilding effort is about] what is coming from your heart now, how much you pour into everything and how you be a true person."
Finding Workers
Amid lingering rumors of violence and unsafe conditions about the post-Katrina state of New Orleans, businesses are struggling to make a profit and have difficulty finding qualified staff.
The number of service industry jobs, when measured against the halved population of the city, makes for a tricky combination.
Mike Rosenblatt, a local business owner and attorney who practices mainly domestic law, owns a local diner called Rosey's Diner on Magazine Street near the French Quarter. He says business has not even come close to recovering, partly due to staffing challenges.
"We rely a lot on tourism, this is a great location," said Rosenblatt. "We used to do an overnight, we used to be open 24 hours a day, but I just don't have the manpower anymore. I don't have the talent anymore."
Greg Simpson, General Manager at Rosey's Diner adds that the diminished demand is what has really hurt business.
"Tourism is half of what it was, and this is a tourism based economy, strictly," quips Simpson when he hears Rosey's Diner owner describing the diner's challenges. "If they don't get the conventions in, if they don't get the tourism, businesses just go."
Some smaller businesses have managed to come through the Katrina aftermath relatively well, but face more of the same problems. Brent Hoeman, Manager at the Bourbon Street location of a small local chain of cafés called Café Beignet, says that he still struggles to stay well staffed.
Hoeman says the problem, especially early on, was part wage increase, part picky employees. "All of a sudden you had to pay more for the same level of work. The bad thing is that people who didn't like what we did could just go next door and get a job doing the same thing."
Employers say that their dilemma is that they simply don't have enough qualified applicants to choose from and are sometimes left with less-than-desirable workers who show up late, cannot perform job duties, or just don't work very hard. Employees also face challenges of being taken advantage of by some emboldened employers with a glut of applicants—qualified or not.
Even New Orleans' famed street musicians, many of whom are accomplished professionals in their own right, have also been hurt by the decreased population and lackluster tourism.
Doreen and Lawrence Ketchens, who have performed all over the world and have 18 CDs, still play New Orleans jazz on the streets of the French Quarter, but paid jobs in regional clubs aren't profitable enough to make it worth the gas money.
The couple, who play the tuba and clarinet, persevere with the tradition because they think it is something that is helping to preserve and rebuild the city.
"I want to keep the culture [of New Orleans] alive," says Lawrence Ketchens.
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