The St. Tammany Tourist Commission praises the township’s small-town charm mixed with the bold Louisiana culture to attract visitors from across the country. Now the organization is bringing this tune to a more local audience as well.

As the commission works to bring tourism back to pre-pandemic levels and grow from there, Donna O’Daniels, president and CEO of the St. Tammany Parish Tourist and Convention Commission, said it matters to the residents themselves is to understand why these visitors are important.

“Tourism affects the quality of life of every resident. The billions of dollars that are invested in local businesses and the tax dollars that are raised simply affect every household, ”she said. “As we are all recovering from COVID, it is important to get our tourism economy up and running.”

O’Daniels said tourists are helping small businesses in ways that go beyond what locals can do on their own. For example, she said that 40% of restaurant business comes from visitors outside of St. Tammany.

She said that visitors who have come to know and love the St. Tammany food scene, bustling festivals and cook-offs, quaint communities and outdoor attractions are doing more than just helping the economy by spending money on their visit. They also bring new businesses and restaurants to the area, which further boosts the economy.

“Knowing a company will be doing tourism business is an important factor in making a decision to invest here,” she said.

O’Daniels, 55, received her bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University and worked in the state’s tourism industry for several years before moving to New Orleans in 1995. In 1996 she joined the St. Tammany Tourist Commission as a communications director. Managing Director Hyatt Hood.

She took over the helm in 2005, just before Hurricane Katrina hit. In the weeks that followed, she began highlighting the way St. Tammany offered a boutique getaway of food and music set against the backdrop of rivers, bayous, and Lake Pontchartrain under stately oaks and tall pines.

Under the leadership of O’Daniels, the Tourism Commission has identified St. Tammany as a unique travel destination – not just as an additional side trip to New Orleans or Baton Rouge.

In 2018 the organization received a seal of approval and accreditation from Destinations International, the world’s largest resource for convention and visitor offices and tourism associations. The Tourism Commission began “to focus on increasing the percentage of vacationers who came to St. Tammany on purpose,” said O’Daniels.

In 2019, 2.6 million people visited St. Tammany, which is the equivalent of the population of the city of Chicago. These visitors brought $ 71 million to the community and saved $ 1,100 for every local taxpayer that year, according to statistics from the Tourism Commission. According to a 2019 study by the University of New Orleans Hospitality Research Center, St. Tammany was named the state’s fourth largest tourism economy.

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“It’s like every man, woman, and child in Chicago came to St. Tammany and spent about $ 300 each,” said O’Daniels. “If tourism went away, where would we find all of the taxpayer money generated by visitors? Put simply, tourism improves the quality of life for all of us who live here. “

O’Daniels said she wanted tourism to continue to boost small businesses across the community. She said it was crucial to involve locals in the post-COVID tourism recovery and that involvement actually began in the middle of the nationwide quarantine.

During the COVID-19 shutdown, the Tourism Commission shifted its focus from marketing to those who came to the community and began directing its marketing efforts towards their own residents. The campaign aimed to show residents what recreational activities they had right in their own backyards when so many venues were closed to the public.

O’Daniels said it was the first time that a marketing budget was earmarked for residents of St. Tammany themselves. The strategy worked and helped keep businesses alive that would normally rely on tourist dollars, especially during the summer months, and showed residents how the Tourism Commission could be a valuable resource for them.

The website of the Tourism Commission, www.lanorthshore.com, became an important support for residents to check status updates on which restaurants were open, which events were canceled or postponed, or even to search for and find out about outdoor attractions, O’Daniels said.

“We really have become THE website for locals to use for our calendar and resources. We had such a great response that the business owners thanked us personally. It was good to know that we were able to provide this resource and help, ”she said.

As part of its more localized campaign, the Tourism Commission also expanded its Taste of Tammany program, which began during an intensive effort to increase leisure travelers by offering discounts on restaurants and hotel stays. With additional discounts on attractions and shopping, businesses could grow after the lockdown break and get residents excited about the restaurants and activities in St. Tammany, O’Daniels said.

O’Daniels said a March 18 strategic plan meeting led by North Carolina consulting firm Young Strategies is helping to create “monumental changes for the industry.”

Working with Young included collecting survey responses from local officials, residents, and business owners. She said she and the Tourism Commission will use these answers and data to create a tourism climate that strikes the perfect balance between feeding the economy and maintaining the quaint, peaceful atmosphere that the Tourism Commission passionately promotes.

O’Daniels said retreating the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry will be very similar to adapting to the 9/11 attacks on the US, Hurricane Katrina, and the 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill.

“These past events created changes in the industry that we had to adapt to. We look closely at where we have been and what has to happen in the future, ”she said. “Next is supposed to grow.”

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