Like most businesses in the French Quarter, Peaches Records on North Peters relies on tourists.
It’s a place where folks can stop in to check out recordings from the city's many celebrated musicians.
But Shirani Rea, the store's owner, hopes perceptions about the oil spill’s impact on New Orleans don't keep people away.
"We get, I think, a little too much negative publicity, and once they do come here, they notice that it's not that bad,” Rea said.“We are nice. You know, it's a good place to visit, so, it's just getting them here, is the most important thing."
It's something Mayor Mitch Landrieu aims to do with the help of a national marketing campaign.
Landrieu says he asked BP for $75 million three weeks ago -- money that would go toward reassuring potential visitors that New Orleans is open for business.
"Every day that they wait, you know, people lose jobs,” he said.“So, it's critically important. This is not new to us. After Katrina, we knew for years, because Fox and CNN continued to show the old pictures, and people thought the city was still under water, and some people thought Shreveport was under water. So, that marketing money is going to be critically important for years going forward."
Sunday morning, Landrieu stressed his points on national television in an interview with CNN.
"When you're a convention city like we are, people are booking conventions years out,” Landrieu said.“So, we have to start working on that right now. We think it's a really important preventative measure, and if we get that in place, we're going to be able to mitigate and minimize the damages that we have years out."
According to city tourism officials, only a few small groups have cancelled trips to New Orleans recently.
Otherwise, they report no major problems.
This weekend, a prime example of how critical conventions are -- as around 25,000 young Lutherans are here for their National Youth Gathering.
The crowds have arrived, but organizers dealt with some uncertainty in recent days.
"A lot of people were very concerned about the oil spill -- how it's going to affect them. But, we were in great contact with a lot of people, and just before everybody came out, we said, 'This is what we know. Everything is good to go. You guys are gonna have a great time in New Orleans,'" said Nikki Becker, who works as a registrar’s assistant for the event.
Visitors we talked with say -- so far, so good.
"The people and the excitement, and the food -- the food, I just love it. I can't get enough of it," said Jonn Flath of Santa Clarita, CA.
