This is HUGE and EXCELLENT news for the city of New Orleans. I received this press release and thought many of you would be interested in reading it. You can follow updates from the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau via their Twitter feed. They are @NewOrleans.
Unprecedented leadership positions with the U. S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, Destination Marketing Association International and the U.S. Travel Association makes New Orleans a top national player in the $770 billion American travel industry.
NEW ORLEANS – Feb. 24, 2010 – Stephen Perry, President and CEO of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), is one of only two urban destination CEOs in the country selected by the Obama Administration to serve on the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board and advise U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Locke and the President of the United States on all key matters relating to national travel and tourism policy.
As a member of the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board, Perry will provide recommendations and expertise on all matters related to the travel industry, including air transportation, airport security, Homeland Security, visa issues and State Department matters, congressional issues and legislative matters, international marketing, business travel, conventions and meetings and national travel industry advocacy, national regulatory and tax matters among many others.
The nomination is a tremendous honor for New Orleans’ hospitality industry, as Perry is one of 29 hospitality industry CEOs appointed to serve on this board. It places him among other tourism luminaries such as David Kong, President and CEO of Best Western International; Richard H. Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines; Chuck Floyd, COO of Global Hyatt; John Sprouls, CEO of Universal Parks and Resorts; Jeremy Jacobs, Sr. Chairman and CEO of Delaware North; Adam Goldstein, President and CEO of Royal Caribbean International; Sam Gilliland, President and CEO of Sabre Holdings; Joseph Saunders, Chairman and CEO of VISA; and a number of others.
Rossi Ralenkotter, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, is the only other CEO of a major urban destination marketing organization chosen to serve on the advisory board with Perry.
Perry also served on the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board in 2008 under the Bush Administration and Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, and is one of only two members asked to continue service with the Obama Administration board.
