I just came from a press conference announcing the 2011 French Quarter Festival presented by Capital One Bank. French Quarter Festival is adding a “Local Lagniappe Day” on Thursday, April 7. This is the first time the festival has expanded to a fourth day in its history. French Quarter Festival has become a huge boost to the New Orleans economy over the years, and has been ranked third in its economic impact ($316 million) on the city, after Mardi Gras and the Superbowl (when it’s in New Orleans), according to Dr. Janet Speyrer, Associate Dean for Research and Economics at the University of New Orleans. Tax dollars generated last year was over $25 million.

So it’s not a bad idea for city fathers and marketers to jump on board the FQF train, as they jumped on the Jazz Fest bandwagon years ago. The more successful festivals we have in the city, the more tax dollars the city can generate.

FQF started not as a music festival, but as a small event that was supposed to draw locals back to the French Quarter, after the turmoil of construction in the Quarter after the 1984 World’s Fair. But that’s not the case anymore. It is primarily a festival of local New Orleans and Louisiana music.

International visitors love New Orleans Music (shown here, the Paulin family band)

FQF has done its job, in spades, in getting visitors to the Quarter. For the past two years, festival attendees have reached the half-million mark. No business in the French Quarter could deny the positive impact on their businesses generated by FQF.

But I still don’t think that FQF organizers—or tourism officials—understand the importance of music to the success of this event. I daresay that the fact that FQF has 18 stages with local music (it’s adding one more this year on Decatur Street, to be sponsored by House of Blues) is the biggest draw that the festival has. After that, the food; then the ambiance of the Quarter itself. So let’s give credit where it’s due: visitors to New Orleans come here for music and food, or food and music, depending on the season. During Mardi Gras, they may come for the 24-hour-a-day booze too. I’m wondering how many surveys conducted by tourism officials ask respondents about that attraction: the ability to party and stay drunk 24/7?

In any case, once again, IMHO tourism people are so missing the boat when it comes to getting leisure visitors to New Orleans. They need to focus on music, particularly when trying to attract international visitors.

I noticed in the NOCVB’s Marketing Plan under “International Tourism Development” they continue to bemoan that fact that since there’s no direct flight to New Orleans, it’s hard to get international visitors here. Personally, I think that’s a pretty sad excuse for not marketing the city’s music and festivals to the international marketplace. It would be like saying there’s no direct flight to Venice, Italy, so no one could expect Americans to visit Venice. It’s called a destination, folks! New Orleans is a music destination!

The NOCVB uses tried and true methods of getting international visitors to the city: international tour operators and travel agents. To do this they must have a presence at trade shows that market to these people. That’s an expensive proposition.

Perhaps the hotels—who stand to benefit the most by marketing to international travelers—should get involved directly with this marketing process. International visitors are extremely lucrative for the city: they stay an estimated 5.5 nights on average and spend almost $1200 per person, per trip—much higher than domestic visitors. In addition to NOCVB efforts geared at tours and wholesale travel agents, perhaps the hotels could individually send out information digitally to prospective and previous guests. They already have their own e-mailing lists. But instead of sending a generic “Come To New Orleans” message, they should specifically promote the city as the U.S. music mecca, and the place where American music was born.

Let’s hope that some other (smarter) city or state hasn’t already co-opted that message (we’ve already lost some of that to Austin)! It’s going to take some real work on the part of tourism officials and the city itself to promote this. New Orleans needs to be branded as a music city. Let’s get to it! OffBeat can’t do it alone.