How tourist destinations recover after terrorism

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mardi Gras is in full swing. It's a crucial time for the New Orleans' economy, but the celebrations are cast behind the shadow of the recent terrorist attack. Today on the show, we talk about how terrorism impacts tourism and why some places recover faster than others.

Related episodes:
Do dollar store bans work (Apple / Spotify)

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	NPR.
0:02.0	We are officially deep into Mardi Gras, and for New Orleans, it's a time for parades and putting together your best purple, green, and gold outfit. It's also
0:21.9	really important time for the city's economy. Right. For retail across most of the country,
0:26.9	the Christmas shopping season is king. But in New Orleans, that crown goes to Mardi Gras.
0:32.5	Marty Gras is the bigger holiday, which is crazy, right? Is it a close second or not even close?
0:37.3	I would say not even close.
0:40.0	That's Lauren Hedell, and she's the owner of Flirty Girl.
0:43.4	It's a New Orleans T-shirt company that's grown to nine different stores across
0:47.2	Louisiana and Mississippi.
0:49.0	We caught up with Lauren around the start of Mardi Gras back in January because this year
0:53.8	there is a somber mood mixed
0:55.5	in with the celebrations.
0:56.9	How has traffic been during this first few weeks of the year?
1:01.1	The French Quarter has been especially quiet.
1:04.1	New Orleans is still reeling from a terrorist attack on New Year's Day when a man drove a truck
1:09.0	through a crowd in the French Quarter.
1:12.0	He killed 14 people and injured dozens more. It was an awful tragedy and the city is still mourning. It also
1:18.3	people there worried that the tourists the city's economy relies on would stay away.
1:23.8	And we get, it could sound callous, talk about business after a tragedy like that.
1:28.5	But the livelihoods of so many people rely on tourism.
1:32.4	A sharp drop in visitors can be devastating for both business owners and workers.
1:37.8	This is the indicator from Planet Money.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -29 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.