The spillover into Baton Rouge of football fans attending the Super Bowl festivities and game in New Orleans fueled a 48% increase in occupancy and 117% rise in revenue for local hoteliers during the weekend of Feb. 1-3. That’s according to new figures released this morning by Smith Travel Research, which tracks hotel occupancy figures in cities across the globe. Though far from sold out, Baton Rouge hotels were slightly more than 73% full during the first weekend of February—up from just under 50% during the same weekend in 2012. Collective hotel revenue during the weekend was more than $2.5 million this year, the report says, up 117% over the $1.2 million netted during the same weekend last year. “The Super Bowl offered a great opportunity to showcase our city, and this report shows how effectively we prepared and executed,” says Visit Baton Rouge President/CEO Paul Arrigo in a prepared statement.
Editor’s note: This story has been changed since its original publication to correct the amount of collective hotel revenue.
