New Orleans' leading attraction, The National WWII Museum is set to expand.
The museum and its Board of Trustees recently broke ground on the addition of a $66.5 million hotel and conference center in the city's Warehouse District. The 230-room Higgins Hotel & Conference Center is scheduled to join the Curio Collection by Hilton when it opens in 2019.
The hotel's second-floor conference will boast more than 18,000 square feet of meeting space, including a boardroom and five meeting rooms displaying names related to content and themes of World War II.
The Higgins Hotel & Conference Center-named after Higgins Industries shipbuilder Andrew Higgins-will help support the influx of visitors and allow the museum to expand its educational programs by providing space for conferences, symposia and student and teacher residential programs.
Profits from the property will be distributed to the National WWII Museum to build its endowment and educational mission.
"When we looked at our last undeveloped piece of land, we wanted to ensure that we created a property that would economically support the Museum's educational mission, while also enhancing our visitor experience," the museum's president and CEO, Stephen J. Watson said in a statement. "When you pair that with our increasing visitation, a hotel and conference center is a natural choice."
The museum is currently among the hottest in the world, drawing 700,000 visitors in 2017 alone. Approximately 85 percent of those visitors traveled from out of state, and nearly half cited the National WWII Museum as their primary reason for coming to New Orleans.
Multiday visits continue to grow as well. Since 2009, the percentage of museum visitors spending more than three hours on campus has tripled to almost 60 percent.
"In 2017, the Museum is driving more than 300,000 room nights at hotels throughout New Orleans," stated Brandon Berger, World War II Theatre, Inc. Board Chairman. "A hotel will give us the opportunity to offer our visitors convenient accommodations in the ever-expanding Warehouse District neighborhood."
"With this additional space, we can host more lectures, Meet the Author receptions, conferences and symposia right here on the Museum's main campus."
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The hotel will offer a built-in loyalty program for the National WWII Museum's membership base of more than 156,000 that will reward member guests with VIP treatment.
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