Promoting tourism to North Vermilion students; Sophomore Civic Class invites Lt. Gov. Nungesser to speak to 250 students

Branches of government, Louisiana culture, history and tourism are topics North Vermilion High teacher Sammy Theriot teaches sophomore Civics students.
While the standard way of teaching is to get information out of a textbook, Theriot, who has been teaching for 30-plus years, likes to do something different.
The former state representative (1979-1996) and Vermilion Parish clerk of court wants his students to learn hands on and hear how government works from Louisiana politicians.
Each year he encourgages his students to invite any politician or governmental official to North Vermilion to speak to the sophomore class.
On Wednesday, Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser accepted an invitation from a North Vermilion student to speak.
Talking in the North Vermilion High gymnasium, Nungesser explained to the 250 sophomore students that his job is to promote Louisiana.
Nungesser spoke about his favorite subject — tourism in Louisiana.
In 2021 the Louisiana Office of Tourism said 41 million people visited the Bayou State, not quite the pre-pandemic levels of 53 million in 2019. However, he is expecting the 2022 numbers to be higher than 41 million people.
“Tourism is the fourth biggest industry in Louisiana,” said Nugesser. “Who would have thought? I expect us to break tourism records in 2023.”
The state is doing everything possible to promote Louisiana to different states and countries after COVID.
For the second consecutive year, the Office of Tourism has promoted the state at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York and the Tournament of Roses Parade in California.
The tourism department paid $1.3 million over three years to have a float in the Macy’s Parade.
“Louisiana was able to get much exposure from those two parades,” he said. “We invested $1.3 million (the price of the float), but I think Louisiana got $20 million worth of exposure for the first year. We still have one year to go.”
Nungesser felt it was such a success he requested the state put a float in the Rose Bowl Parade, something the state had never done before. Also riding and singing on the float was an up-and-coming country music star Lainie Wilson. Wilson is a singer from the northern part of Louisiana.
Riding with Wilson on the float were festival queens from Louisiana. The Tourism Department selected a handful of festival queens to ride and promote their festival and Louisiana.
After promoting tourism, Nungesser fielded questions from the NV sophomore students. One student asked Nungesser what the state’s most significant problem was.
He said education. He gave examples of states that have a long-term plan to fix their education system over seven years. That plan included giving teacher pay raises over a seven-year period.
“Until we make a long-term commitment, our state will always be in a battle,” he said.
Another problem the state has is a high crime rate. Nungesser said the high crime rate and tourism are not a good combo. The two go poorly together.