Houma subcommittee: Downtown promotions lagging

Downtown Houma’s several tourist attractions should be more aggressively marketed.

That was the recent conclusion drawn by a Terrebonne Parish Council subcommittee, which met in late August to discuss the promotion of downtown Houma tourist sites.

The meeting was prompted, in part, by criticism made by Roger Bourgeois at the Aug. 8 Terrebonne Parish Council meeting.

Bourgeois, who operates the Houma fire-protection equipment supplier Bourgeois & Associates, complained to the council about the lack of signage directing tourists to downtown attractions. He also questioned how revenue derived from the boom in hotel construction in the Houma area is being spent.

Bourgeois made the same points at the subcommittee meeting, which was attended by Council members Kim Elfert, Christa Duplantis and Arlanda Williams; Council Clerk

Paul Labat; Houma Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Sharon Alford; Main Street Manager Anne Picou; TEDA representative Michelle Edwards and Houma attorney Michael Billiot.

Alford spoke about the state of tourism in Terrebonne Parish and in Louisiana as a whole.

“We are sitting through one of the worst times for tourism in Louisiana,” she said.

Tourism in the state rose healthily from 1999 to 2005, but declined by 20 percent after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Alford said.

“It’s a bad time for visitors,” she said, “but we need to plan for when they come back.”

The state is struggling from the negative publicity New Orleans has been receiving.

“New Orleans is the main destination in Louisiana altogether,” she said.

Alford called for unity among south Louisianans when it comes to marketing the region.

“Persons in New Orleans see themselves as New Orleans,” she said, “people along the

(Mississippi) river see themselves as river people, and west of Morgan City is Lafayette.”

She believes that two of downtown Houma’s principal attractions the Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum (7910 Park Ave.) and the Terrebonne Folklife Culture Center (317 Goode St.) – should be viewed primarily as an asset for parish residents.

The museums “are important factors in the quality of life in Terrebonne Parish,” Alford said. “Then visitors come in.”

Duplantis echoed a complaint made by Councilwoman Teri Cavalier at the Aug. 8 parish council meeting about the exhibits at the Waterlife Museum stagnating.

“At the Waterlife Museum, the exhibits don’t move,” Duplantis said. “It’s an awesome building, but once you’ve seen them, you’ve seen them.”

The museum is parish property, but it receives money from the parish hotel-motel tax only to keep up the grounds, Picou said. The Folklife Center is also parish property, but it takes in hotel-motel tax revenue to maintain the building.

The parish’s Main Street Program receives $112,000 yearly from the hotel-motel tax to maintain public property in downtown Houma.

Picou said the cost to rent the Waterlife Museum for private functions does not compare well with the price to rent other venues in Houma.

The rental price is $400, but rises to $800 after insurance and security costs are added, she said.

Alford said, “Tourism marketing changes every six months because of technology. You can easily spend money foolishly.”

“More people go to our Web site than use the (printed) tour guide,” she said. “We have brochures in every downtown hotel in New Orleans. It’s costly, but it’s on display.”

She said the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce has discussed placing a parish welcome sign on New Orleans Blvd.

Alford said also that the church near Gibson on Deadwood Road, which was featured prominently in the 1997 Robert Duvall movie “The Apostle,” has been a strong draw for tourists.

Bourgeois, who donated antique tools, decoys and display cases to the Folklife Center, said he tried to place some of the center’s brochures in the Terrebonne Parish Library. He was told in response, however, that he could not display them because the library does not advertise places that charge an admission fee.

A representative from the library confirmed that that is library policy.

In addition, Bourgeois suggested turning a section of downtown Houma into a pedestrian mall.

Despite the post-Katrina tourism slump, the Visitors Bureau is optimistic.

As part of its regular marketing efforts, the bureau rented a booth at the Chicago Blues Festival.

“We tell people that stories about Louisiana are incorrect,” Alford said. “We have seen a trickle of people back.”

Billiot, who works for Liberty Law Clinic, announced that the clinic is organizing free tours of downtown Houma on the first Monday of each month beginning later this year.

He said the idea of offering the tours was spawned after the president of the Louisiana State Bar Association took a tour of downtown Houma recently led by a local historian.

No free tours of downtown Houma are currently being offered.