Online air ticket vendors are vying with one another to offer travelers cheap fares to New Orleans. This is one of the economic implications of a city getting wiped out by a hurricane. Travelers have been less inclined to visit New Orleans and need some sort of incentive to pick it as a destination.

However, this seems at odds with news reports of rising travel costs due to fluctuating gas prices, among other things, post-Katrina. Surveys conducted have shown that consumer confidence was low, and swiftly escalating gas and travel costs impacted the Travel Industry of America