Stephen Perry Quotations

We just want to make sure that everything is right as people come back, ... You want them to have the full New Orleans experience.

Damage assessments are forthcoming but early views are very optimistic, ... Unconfirmed secondary sources report that the center has suffered minor window breakage and wind damage. Water damage is limited to two halls and is very manageable at this time.

We are delighted that Tom Benson decided to return to New Orleans and play the 2006 season in the Superdome. This was a very positive step in our rebuilding efforts and has already provided an enormous boost to the spirits of our community. Our group will work closely with the Saints to provide support at all levels -- selling suites and season tickets, identifying creative sponsorship arrangements, and generally working as hard as we can to help them succeed here.

When you see estimates of New Orleans not getting power back or water flowing for six or eight months, that is not the part of the city where tourists go.

It's like a big hand came down and protected historic buildings.

The really positive thing long-term is, the core of our infrastructure of the $5 billion to $8 billion tourism industry remained intact, ... As odd as it may sound right now, we are optimistic that this recovery is not only going to happen, its going to happen well and we're going to have a great city going again.

So this really, for us, is the new birth of New Orleans, our culture and our economics all at the same time.

The tourist infrastructure is standing up well and will rebound before the rest of the city, ... the great issue is when the city will have basic services back to manage visitors. We will all work hard to make sure the time frame is pushed as early as possible, but only if public safety and basic human issues have been addressed.

We were surprised at the announcement, because it requires a very complex business calculation. It has an awful lot of hurdles at the state level.

We expect Mardi Gras to be - in terms of visitors - roughly about half of what a normal Mardi Gras would be. Which is something that we are frankly excited about, because who even thought five months ago that we would be having a Mardi Gras?