Greater New Orleans Area
NewOrleans.com/meetings; @NewOrleansAndCo
Planners eying the “Big Easy” can leverage more than 26,000 hotel rooms, hundreds of award-winning restaurants, attractions, and one of the nation’s top convention centers within a compact 2.5-square-mile radius downtown.
The updated and modernized LEED Gold-certified New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center—boasting 1.1 million square feet of exhibit space and more than 322,000 square feet of meeting space—continues its extensive $763 million transformation. Upcoming phases include construction of a new 1,000-room Omni Convention Center headquarters hotel, which is estimated to open in late 2029/early 2030. The hotel will have approximately 100,000 square feet of meeting space. Sitework and construction have begun at the adjacent 39-acre River District neighborhood, a mixed-use commercial, entertainment, and residential development with a riverfront park.
Wrapping up later this year are multimillion-dollar renovations to the 1,622 guest rooms at Hilton New Orleans Riverside and the 1,333 guest rooms at New Orleans Marriott. New Orleans Marriott Warehouse Arts District recently updated its 332 rooms, and JW Marriott New Orleans enhanced its 24,000 square feet of meeting space.
“New properties in the boutique hotel space are also adding to the offerings across the city, bringing exceptional F&B offerings, as well as flexible accommodations for smaller groups and meetings,” says Stephanie Turner, senior vice president of convention sales & strategies for New Orleans & Co. “These investments demonstrate our commitment to maintaining a world-class hospitality product for meetings and conventions of every size.”
A 216-room Element by Marriott opened earlier this year, as part of a $90 million dual-branded adaptive-reuse development downtown. The hotel’s companion property, a 250-room Fairmont Hotels & Resorts property featuring 20,000 square feet of event space, is scheduled to open later this year.
Other downtown options include the 1,193-room Hyatt Regency New Orleans, with 200,000 square feet of event space; the 1,100-room Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, with 105,996 square feet of event space; and the 285-room Loews New Orleans Hotel, with 17,000 square feet of space and access to the Piazza D’Italia. In the Warehouse Arts District, across from the National WWII Museum, the 230-room Higgins Hotel & Conference Center, Curio Collection by Hilton accommodates events of up to 650 attendees.
New Orleans continues to earn national and international recognition, including being named a UNESCO Creative City of Music and receiving significant acclaim in the MICHELIN Guide American South. Emeril’s restaurant has earned two MICHELIN Stars, while Saint Germain and Zasu each have earned one MICHELIN Star. Other acclaimed dining options include 11 Bib Gourmand and 18 MICHELIN-recommended restaurants.
