billy-nungesser

Nungesser Kicks Off State Tourism Week At Gnarly Barley

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 22:16:46 GMT

Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser joined Parish President Robby Miller during Louisiana State Tourism Week in Tangipahoa Tourism to recognize Gnarly Barley as the 2023 Louey Award Winner for Best Attraction in Louisiana!

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Nungesser Visits With Covington Third Grader

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 22:16:25 GMT

Recently, Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser had the chance to meet and honor an incredible young man named Hayes Smith. He was born missing his right leg, but has never let that get in his way.

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Nungesser Makes Successful Trip To New Zealand Promoting Louisiana Tourism

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 22:16:07 GMT

The New Zealand leg of Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser's trip to promote everything Louisiana tourism was an absolute success. Like we told the Kiwi travel delegation, if you can eat it, shoot it, dance to it, hunt it, throw it, catch it, play it, we’ve got a festival for it! We cannot wait to welcome more Kiwis to the Bayou State.

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Nungesser Announces New Tourism Markets

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 22:15:53 GMT

At the Alexandria/Pineville Convention and Visitor's Bureau annual tourism luncheon, Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser announced plans to increase our focus on drawing more international tourists to Louisiana. We credit the increased tourism to our residents- it's because of the people, we treat people like family.

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The Billy Bulletin- May 2023

Wed, 31 May 2023 19:12:52 GMT

HEY y'All!

Welcome to the first edition of our campaign newsletter. Election day is just over 150 days away and this newsletter will be sent to you monthly to keep you informed of our campaign’s plans and progress. We’ve enjoyed a great deal of success in Louisiana Tourism. For five consecutive years we broke visitor attendance records; we transformed our state parks and museums from nearly being shuttered to reaching new heights in visitation and revenue. In one year alone, over 53 million people visited Louisiana leaving behind $1.9 billion in taxes that you and I didn’t have to pay. That's over $1,100 in savings per Louisiana family. We’re cleaning Louisiana up through Keep Louisiana Beautiful. This year, over 500 organizations throughout our state, schools and universities collected over 500 tons of trash as we brighten our state’s future. We are creating more private/public partnerships to improve quality of life for our elderly, educate our children and build more attractions. Success in tourism is around every corner, and we’re just getting started. I am honored to serve as your Lt. Governor. With your support, we’ll continue the progress.

The King of Seafood & the Queens of Louisiana

It was good to be back home in Plaquemines Parish for the annual Seafood Festival. Cher and I loved the creative ways our chefs use Louisiana Seafood. And it was a pleasure getting to see so many old friends and many of our talented Louisiana Festival Queens. We have over 400 festivals in Louisiana and our festival queens are true ambassadors for the State of Louisiana.

MORE THAN A FAIR

We can’t discount the importance of our neighborhood school fairs. Not only do they support their school and parish, but they also introduce many of their guests to new businesses across the area. Cher and I especially enjoyed meeting so many terrific Louisianans at the St. Peter fair in Covington. The kids are clever and creative, and they make memories that’ll last a lifetime while supporting their schools. St. Peter's School students helped raise funds to build a special needs playground at Fontainebleau State Park.New Paragraph

313 Tons Cleaner

Our Keep Louisiana Beautiful (KLB) Love the Boot Week last month attracted the support of 547 events across all 64 parishes. In total, 12,777 individuals volunteered for 61,493 hours. In addition to litter removal, volunteers focused on community beautification, planting 370 trees and 3,542 plants, and refurbishing 146 gardens. Let's keep the paradise in the Sportsman's Paradise.New Paragraph

Nungesser Plans Tourism Marketing Efforts to Help ‘Every Corner’ of State

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 19:08:56 GMT

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser highlighted efforts to promote tourism in the state and continued plans coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic during a Senate Finance Committee meeting.

Nungesser explained his office is requesting $20 million for tourism in the upcoming budget, as well as an additional $2 million for state parks and other one-time investments in Louisiana museums, to help boost the state after shutdowns that dragged local fundraising during the pandemic.

The money is going toward a full-court press to promote “every fair, festival and every event in every corner of this state,” with a focus on helping Louisiana businesses recover from the pandemic, Nungesser told the Senate committee Wednesday.

“We know getting back open is only part of what we need to do, but if restaurants, shops and attractions don’t make money, they won’t make it,” he said. “So we’re having to dig deep into every area of the state and promote every event because most of them don’t have any money to promote.”

Nungesser said his proposed budget included about $7.5 million to fund services for the blind and handicapped and internet access at public libraries across Louisiana because of shortfalls in other departments.

The lieutenant governor detailed returns from a wildly popular alligator float used during the Macy’s Day Parade, a $1.5 million three-year advertisement in Times Square, and smaller investments to promote local attractions.

“We’ve … added $1 million to promote swamp tours, museums, walking tours, all these small venues around the state to get people back visiting all of those. And we added another $1.5 million to the fairs and festivals,” he said. “We found out their budget had been strained in the two years they haven’t been able to have their fundraising events, so we’re having to put up more money to fund those things.

“Things that normally stand on their own, like Jazz Fest, French Quarter Fest, and Festival International, we’re having to be sponsors of these because of lack of corporate sponsors that usually help host those events,” Nungesser said.

Event organizers must secure funding ahead of time, “so we jumped on early to make sure all of these events took place,” he said.

The department is marketing in airports, Times Square, train stations, taxis, buses and other places across the country and internationally, and officials are monitoring the ads to maximize returns, he said.

The state also has focused on further developing a civil rights trail started in 2019, with nine stops now recognized as part of the national civil rights trail.

Nungesser also pointed to milestones and planned investments with state parks that are expected to generate significant revenue and provide other benefits.

“We’ve seen our highest visitation at state parks in 10 years,” he said.

A new public-private horse riding partnership, glamping tents and mountain bike trails have contributed to the growth, along with investments in direct sewage for campers, Nungesser said.

Officials are hoping to expand the direct sewage to all state parks, he said, which would increase occupancy significantly and generate “a couple million dollars” more in revenue by increasing rates by $12 per day.

“A lot of retirees wouldn’t come to our parks when we first got into office because you had to bring your sewage to a station,” he said. “We’ve been adding … direct sewage, and those sites book up immediately.”

The department’s long-term vision is to partner with state and federal agencies to utilize the sites for temporary shelters during hurricanes or other natural disasters.

Nungesser also detailed other proposed improvements to the state’s museums and historical sites, as well as efforts to promote Louisiana’s seafood industry.

Two New Exhibits Opening Today At Capitol Park Museum

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 19:19:20 GMT

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Capitol Park Museum today opened two new exhibits – Letitia Huckaby: This Same Dusty Road and Katrina Andry: The Promise of the Rainbow Never Came. Both exhibits depict how artistic interpretations of history and culture can portray the world in new ways.

This Same Dusty Road features quilted photographic works based on Huckaby's faith, family, and cultural heritage in Louisiana. Much of the work in this exhibition grows out of memories of visiting family who lived along Highway 19, north of Baton Rouge. Through heirloom fabrics, traditional hand-quilting techniques, and photography, Huckaby mines the legacy of her family—particularly the matriarchs—connecting and confronting past and present inequities. She composes her family portraits to evoke old masterworks and altar pieces. Another portrait series features nuns at the Sisters of the Holy Family Mother House, founded in 1842 by free women of color.

Letitia Huckaby holds an MFA in photography from the University of North Texas. Her work is part of the permanent collections of the Library of Congress; the Art Museum of Southeast Texas in Beaumont; the Samella Lewis Contemporary Art Collection at Scripps College in Claremont, California; and the Brandywine Workshop in Philadelphia. She has exhibited at Dallas Contemporary, the Galveston Arts Center, and the McKenna Museum of African American Art in New Orleans and been in residence with the Gee's Bend Quilters and Brandywine.

Katrina Andry: The Promise of the Rainbow Never Came includes large-scale color reduction prints and a mixed-media, site-specific installation for exhibition. This new body of work offers an alternate mythology for African men, women, and children thrown overboard during the Middle Passage, but also suggests the lingering violence against people of color. Andry's series considers the promise of the rainbow – the promise not to be destroyed again by water – unfulfilled for people of color, who continue to endure violence and erasure three hundred years after the initial journey toward enslavement.

"We are proud to show the work of these two contemporary Louisiana artists," says Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser. "Their works show how artistic interpretations of history and culture can help us see the world in new ways."

Katrina Andry holds an MFA in printmaking from Louisiana State University. She lives and maintains a studio in New Orleans. Most recently, Andry was one of seven artists included in New Orleans Museum of Art's Changing Course: Reflections on New Orleans Histories, an exhibition reconsidering New Orleans upon the city's tricentennial. Andry was listed in the January-February 2012 issue of Art in Print as one of the top-50 printmakers. Katrina is an active member of the Staple Goods Collective in the St. Roch neighborhood of New Orleans. She has also been awarded residencies from the Joan Mitchell Center of New Orleans, Anchor Graphics in Chicago, and Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California.

Curated by Courtney Taylor, the Louisiana State University Museum of Art organized the exhibitions. Donations from Hayride Scandal, Affordable Signs, Third Eye Consulting Group, First Financial of Baton Rouge LLC, Louisiana Museum Foundation, Capitol Park Friends, Louisiana Travel, and the Winifred & Kevin Reilly, Jr. Foundation supported both exhibitions. The exhibits can be viewed at Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge through September 17, 2022.

The Capitol Park Museum is a Louisiana State Museum, telling a story of passion, adventure, and discovery that could have happened in #OnlyLouisiana . Come experience a way of life like no other. Capitol Park Museum is open Tuesday – Saturday, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. For more information, please call 225-342-5428 or visit the Capitol Park Museum webpage.

Litter task force discusses report on recommendations

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 19:29:37 GMT

On June 15th, 2022, the Statewide Litter Abatement & Beautification Task Force adopted recommendations and action plans to clean up Louisiana, which the task force will present to Governor John Bel Edwards by July 1, 2022.

“We will proceed immediately with some of the action items being recommended in the report. As we expand our efforts to clean up Louisiana, we were very encouraged by the more than 300 groups around the state during Love the Boot Week that pitched in to pick up litter. The passion is definitely there. Now, we need to harness that passion and channel it into our future efforts,” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, Chairman of the Statewide Litter Abatement and Beautification Task Force.

Nungesser looks for a solution to help the homeless and locals

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 19:24:39 GMT

NEW ORLEANS — Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser wants to try again to put together a plan he says will provide help to the homeless in New Orleans, while also making the city's most popular tourist spots safer.

Nungesser says plans to address the issues never got off the ground, and warns time is running short to solve the problems before tourism is negatively impacted.

Tourism is one of the top four economic drivers in the state, bringing in $1.9 billion in taxes in 2019. That money offsets taxes families pay, and provides funds to bring big music and sports events to the area.

Nungesser says only prosecuting a fraction of the crimes and the growing number of people living on the street is hurting that industry.

"We've been doing it for years, and we got no response and we have sent photos. We have had meetings, but there's no results. There's no action. Nobody cares," said Cindy Brennan, owner of Mr. B’s Bistro about the people living on the French Quarter streets.

After airing the frustration of those who say prime gathering areas in New Orleans are becoming unsafe for locals and visitors, we got a call from Nungesser saying the same.

“We see the letters of people saying, ‘I'm never coming back. We were harassed leaving the restaurant. There were people laying naked in the street. They were using the bathroom in the street. My kids shouldn't be subject to this.’ And this is everywhere. We see it at the museums,” he said.

He says recently his office, working with the mayor's office, came up with proposed legislation to support the homeless, while at the same time make the Quarter safer.

“Much like they did in San Diego, the Gaslamp district where they separated from the city, managed by residents, and business owners with an appointment by the mayor and the city council to actually manage the Quarter.”

He says state and local money would focus on public safety in the city's tourist areas, with cameras, lighting, graffiti removal, garbage collection, street cleaning, overseen by the citizens group. At the same time, private business owners offered major funding for the homeless to get medical assessments and identify living quarters. It would also bring police numbers up to the 109 the area needs.

“We even offered to put up some money from the tourism office to put friendly officers, to help move the people that are disrupting the public along,” said Nungesser.

The proposal never made it for a vote, but Nungesser says he is still working with the mayor on a plan.

“The mayor's going to be unrolling something, I want to say beginning of July to address cleaning up our core,” said Melissa Newell, Press Secretary for Mayor Cantrell.

Nungesser says help is needed both for the homeless and for businesses relying on tourism. He says something drastic is needed now.

“Failure's not an option on this, if not we're going to lose the Quarter, and lose that place we have in tourism forever. It will take years to catch back if it keeps on this track,” said Nungesser.