Crowds walk Royal Street during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Crowds gather on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Crowds gather close to a Rex float as it passes on Mardi Gras in New Orleans on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
Revelers taking part in Friday Gras lunch at Justine during Carnival 2024 spill out onto Chartres Street to celebrate the growing tradition. (Contributed photo by Mia Freiberger-Deviller)
With a maze of security barriers lining the Uptown side of St. Charles Avenue, a streetcar heads Uptown on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. The normally packed parade route was quiet after rainy weather forced the dayÕs scheduled Mardi Gras parades, including Femme Fatale, Carrollton, and King Arthur, to be rescheduled. (Staff Photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
Homeland Security officers, right, watch as the Rex parade lines up for their Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
Crowds walk Royal Street during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Despite being cut short by a few hours because of the threat of severe weather, Mardi Gras 2025 was significantly bigger than last year’s Carnival celebration, according to local hoteliers, restaurant owners and hospitality leaders.
Occupancy in the 26,000 hotel rooms downtown and in the French Quarter averaged nearly 87% from Feb. 28 through Fat Tuesday, according to New Orleans & Co. On Saturday night, the weekend’s peak, occupancy averaged 95%.
Homeland Security officers, right, watch as the Rex parade lines up for their Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
And that’s not including data from the city’s roughly 6,000 short-term rental units, which, presumably, would drive average occupancy rates even higher.
During the five-night celebration in 2024, by comparison, hotel occupancy averaged 81% and never reached 90%.
“The numbers are pretty high, especially when you consider the explosion of short-term rentals over the past few years,” said New Orleans & Co. President and CEO Walt Leger III. “By all accounts, it was a great Mardi Gras.”
Though a positive sign for the city’s hospitality industry, the still-unofficial occupancy numbers are not as strong as they were in the immediate years before the COVID-19 pandemic, when Mardi Gras revelers regularly took up 95% or more of the city’s hotel rooms during the five-day weekend.
In the years since, the city has yet to return to pre-pandemic visitor levels, though hotels and restaurants report that business is continuing to steadily improve.
Still, pulling off a successful Carnival season was particularly important this year, given the public safety challenges and potential image problems the city faced after the Jan. 1 ramming attack on Bourbon Street.
In the weeks after the attack and leading up to the Super Bowl on Feb. 8, city, state and federal leaders revamped security plans for the French Quarter and Mardi Gras parade routes. They protected streets and sidewalks with bollards and barricades, beefed up law enforcement presence and deployed a host of new crime-fighting technology to not only keep people safer but to make them feel safer.
With a maze of security barriers lining the Uptown side of St. Charles Avenue, a streetcar heads Uptown on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. The normally packed parade route was quiet after rainy weather forced the dayÕs scheduled Mardi Gras parades, including Femme Fatale, Carrollton, and King Arthur, to be rescheduled. (Staff Photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
Experts said it paid off.
“There were concerns going into it,” Leger said. “So it was really positive to see that security was effective but didn’t get in the way of people living out their Mardi Gras tradition and having a good time.”
While hotel occupancy numbers were strong overall, several French Quarter and boutique hotels outperformed the market average. At the six French Quarter hotels owned by the Valentino family, occupancy averaged 95%, up several points from 2024, according to Chris Valentino, chief operating officer for the company.
Crowds gather on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
Hotel St. Vincent in the Lower Garden District was 100% occupied, as in 2024, owner Zach Kupperman said. And the hotel performed better financially, with 14% higher room rates than last year.
Most of the hotel’s guests were tourists who flew into town for Mardi Gras, not regional, drive-in visitors.
Jayson Seidman, who owns the Columns and the Henrietta hotels on St. Charles Avenue as well as Fives Bar on Jackson Square, saw a 20% uptick in revenues this Mardi Gras over last at all his businesses.
“If only we as a city could figure out how to program around the first and second weekends of Mardi Gras, then it would be a major win for the city,” he said.
Tourists weren’t the only ones driving Mardi Gras business this year. Locals also contributed to the coffers, according to some metrics.
Crowds gather close to a Rex float as it passes on Mardi Gras in New Orleans on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
Ticket sales to viewing stands along the parade route on St. Charles Avenue were up 12% this year over last, according to Michael Valentino, whose hotel company manages four sets of stands on the parade route downtown.
Sales of the roughly 2,800 spots in the stands were evenly split between tourists and locals, Valentino said.
“People are increasingly looking for a comfortable, controlled environment to watch the parades versus being out on the street,” he said. “So, the stands did really well this year. It was a robust Mardi Gras.”
Restaurants also benefitted from a robust Carnival season, fueled, in part, by enthusiastic local diners on “Friday Gras,” a day of celebratory brunches and lunches that kicks off Mardi Gras weekend.
Revelers taking part in Friday Gras lunch at Justine during Carnival 2024 spill out onto Chartres Street to celebrate the growing tradition. (Contributed photo by Mia Freiberger-Deviller)
“The Friday before Mardi Gras represents our single busiest lunch of the year in our French Quarter properties,” said Dick Brennan, whose business also was up over 2024. “We find it encouraging and exciting to see so many locals out supporting and enjoying the French Quarter on special days like this one.”
Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate.com.
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