06:24 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 13, 2005

WWLTV.com

The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center has had to cancel between 100-200 major conventions and will have turned away $3.5 billion in business in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Stephen Perry, who heads the Metropolitan Convention and Visitor’s Bureau of New Orleans said conventions have been cancelled through March of 2006, but they are hoping and trying to get conventions scheduled thereafter to stay on board.

He said he has received calls from conventions as far out as 2007 that are concerned with the city’s availability.

Perry said the Convention Center, which employs 81,000 people, is getting a major facelift that includes new floors, walls and carpeting.

“It will be a better and more magnificent center than before Katrina,” he said.