New Orleans Tourism Agency Engages Minority Business Owners Who Demanded Inclusion
Photo Caption: Shops at the Essence Festival in New Orleans. The city recently hired a diversity and inclusion consultant. Zack Smith
Skift Take
When minority business owners spoke up in New Orleans, the city’s tourism marketing corporation responded by admitting the oversight and hiring a diversity and inclusion consultant. Hopefully these measures will have a lasting impact.
Minority business owners and hospitality workers in New Orleans recently demanded that the city’s tourism marketing corporation include them in their sustainability efforts. But in this case, “sustainable” refers not just to the environment, but to protecting the city’s local, multiracial culture.
In response, the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation hired a diversity and inclusion consultant: Deborah Elam, a New Orleans native and founder and CEO of Corporate Playbook.
Executives at New Orleans’ tourism marketing corporation said they didn't realize their diversity and inclusion efforts were lacking for projects like photography, design work, or highlighting minority-owned businesses, according to the corporation’s president a
