Louisiana World Exposition
The Louisiana World Exposition, held in New Orleans from May 12 to November 11, 1984, was designed to foster cultural exchange among participating nations while revitalizing the city's aging infrastructure and enhancing its tourism capabilities. The theme of the exposition, "A World of Rivers: Water as a Source of Life," commemorated the centennial of Louisiana's first world exposition. Despite significant preparations, including the construction of new hotels and a convention center, the event faced challenges such as inadequate publicity and competition from major national events like the 1984 Olympics. As a result, attendance fell short of projections, with only about 7 million visitors—two-thirds from Louisiana—compared to the expected 11 million. The exposition ultimately declared bankruptcy, leading to substantial financial losses for its organizers and the State of Louisiana.
Nevertheless, the long-term effects of the exposition proved to be more favorable. The improvements to the city's infrastructure and the increase in hotel capacity positioned New Orleans as a prime location for future national conventions. Additionally, the renovations in the warehouse district transformed it into a vibrant hub for artists and small businesses, contributing to the growth of tourism in the region over the following decade.
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Louisiana World Exposition
The Event Cultural and trade exhibition
Date May 12 to November 11, 1984
Place New Orleans, Louisiana
The 1984 Louisiana World Exposition lost money when attendance failed to meet expectations. However, the infrastructure improvements and urban rejuvenation undertaken to prepare for the fair later paid off in increased tourism for the city.
Like world fairs of preceding decades, the Louisiana World Exposition was intended to facilitate cultural exchange among the participating nations. It was also designed to help the city of New Orleans renovate its aging infrastructure and increase its inventory of hotels, restaurants, and other businesses required to promote tourism. Tourists were replacing oil and gas production as the city’s largest source of revenue. Exposition organizers formed a private association to sponsor and promote the event several years before it opened, choosing as their theme “A World of Rivers: Water as a Source of Life.” They scheduled the fair to coincide with the one hundredth anniversary of Louisiana’s first world exposition, the 1884 World Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition.
A rundown warehouse section of the city adjacent to Canal Street, the main commercial thoroughfare, was renovated, and a new convention center and shopping pavilion were built along the Mississippi River. Ten new hotels were constructed to accommodate visitors. Promoters became excited about the fair’s prospects when the 1982 World’s Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee, exceeded attendance projections and made a profit. Unfortunately, planners in New Orleans did a very poor job of publicizing their exposition, and the press, including local newspapers and television stations, was frequently critical. To make matters worse, promoters were successful in obtaining only $10 million in federal grants, far less than Knoxville had received. Nevertheless, the exposition opened on May 12 to much local fanfare.
The expected crowds never materialized, largely because of competition from other events. Both political parties held national conventions that year in other cities, and the 1984 Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles. Many people expended their vacation time and money for the year on those events. As a result, fewer out-of-state tourists attended the fair than might otherwise have done so; instead of eleven million visitors, the exposition drew only a little more than seven million, two-thirds of them from Louisiana. As a result, the organizers had to declare bankruptcy even before the fair closed on November 11. They lost approximately $50 million, and the State of Louisiana, which had backed the project heavily, lost $25 million.
Impact
Although in the short run the Louisiana World Exposition was a financial failure and had little immediate effect on tourism in New Orleans, the event’s long-term impact was positive. The increased inventory of hotel rooms allowed the city to become one of the country’s major destinations for national conventions, and renovations in the warehouse district turned that area into a mecca for artists, small businesses, and museums, natural destinations for the increased number of tourists that began flocking to New Orleans within a decade after the fair closed.
Bibliography
Dimanche, Frédéric. “Special Events Legacy: The 1984 Louisiana World’s Fair in New Orleans.” In Quality Management in Urban Tourism, edited by Peter E. Murphy. New York: Wiley, 1997.
Glazer, Susan Herzfeld. “A World’s Fair to Remember.” New Orleans Magazine 38, no. 2 (November, 2003): D4-5.