Parade-goers glow over largest Mardi Gras since '05
05:41 PM CST on Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Maya Rodriguez / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS – Veteran Mardi Gras visitors provided the anecdotal evidence.
Video: Watch the Story
"I haven't seen it this packed in a long time," said Jason Williams, a New York City native, who spent his seventh Mardi Gras in New Orleans this year.
The numbers, though, provide the hard evidence. Tourism officials said Mardi Gras 2009 saw the largest crowds in the city since 2005 – the Mardi Gras before Hurricane Katrina. Nearly one million people turned out for the celebration. The number is based on hotel occupancy rates, restaurant and store sales and garbage collection.
"It's very impressive considering the economy the way it is," said Kelly Schulz, with the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We weren't really sure what to expect, but we promoted Mardi Gras very heavily."
The promotion revolved around selling New Orleans as a recession-proof destination. It's a strategy that apparently worked, but that selling point took a back seat when a shooting broke out along the St. Charles Avenue parade route on Tuesday afternoon. Another shooting occurred on Bourbon Street just after midnight.
In all, multiple shootings across the city injured 12 people within 24 hours.
"The national headlines shifted from 'Mardi Gras 2009 was recession-proof,' to 'shootings along that parade route.' So, that's very unfortunate," Schulz said.
Still, for visitors leaving town Wednesday morning, the shooting seemed to have little impact on their Carnival experience:
"It didn't concern me at all," said Hal Hawthorne of Austin, Texas.
"That stuff happens everywhere," said Dave Sheller, from Bowling Green, Ohio. "You can never tell when that's going to happen, so you just got to deal with it and go on."
"We just had a wonderful time," said Cynthia Nelson of Jackson, Mississippi. "It felt safe."
That is a message tourism officials hope will be repeated outside the city.
"There were almost a million people here and those visitors are going to go back with such good stories," Schulz said. "They had a great time, they experienced New Orleans hospitality and culture and they're going to go back home and become ambassadors for the city."
During the weekend prior to Fat Tuesday, hotels reported bookings of 97 percent or higher. In man cases, hotels were booked solid.
Garbage collection also provides some perspective on the size of the crowd. SDT Waste & Debris Services owner Sidney Torres said last year his company needed 25 trucks to clean up after Mardi Gras. This year, the company required 50 trucks
