CC, one of the things that will affect tourism, and the appearance of your community that you can't directly control - is the crime rate. When N.O. was in the national headlines about having the #1 murder rate in the country, some major conventions decided that they didn't want to have their convention here afterall. Didn't really matter that most of the murders were in areas that conventioneers wouldn't be, i.e. "the hood", and were drug related - what got reported was free-for-all shootings. I think we're still shaking that reputation.