Talkin’ tourism: Visit Baton Rouge is launching a new website at GoBRgoBeyond.com today as part of a new push to inform locals of the economic value tourism provides. The site will feature statistics such as these: tourism annually supports 6,500 jobs locally, while 1.9 million visitors spend an estimated $730 million in Baton Rouge alone. The website will be accompanied by a multimedia campaign, including social media, print media, outdoor billboards and some TV spots.
Seeing stars: Along with Tom Cruise, Andrea Riseborough and Olga Kurylenko, Morgan Freeman will bring his star power to Baton Rouge and New Orleans next month when filming of Cruise’s new movie begins, according to Deadline.com—which also reports the new Universal Pictures film will be called Oblivion. “I haven’t yet been able to figure out what role Freeman will play, but I’m told it’s a critical part,” says the article’s author. “Cruise plays the last man on a post-apocalyptic and nearly uninhabitable Earth, who stays behind to repair ships that hunt down and blast a virulent alien species.” Check out the full story here.
Number munchers: First-time claims for unemployment benefits dropped slightly last week from the previous week in Louisiana, but showed a 21% increase from a year ago. The Louisiana Workforce Commission reports 3,308 initial claims from the newly jobless for the week ending Feb. 4. That’s down from 3,360 the previous week. The latest figure, though, rose from 2,733 for the comparable week ending Feb. 5, 2011. The four-week moving average of claims fell last week to 3,495 from 3,761 the week before. Those still looking for work filed for an additional 40,826 weeks of benefits last week. That’s down from the previous week’s 42,319. For the comparable week of 2011, the jobless filed for an additional 48,504 weeks of benefits.
