With more and more Americans receiving the COVID vaccine and feeling more comfortable with travel, the world of tourism is expanding greatly as summer approaches. Today, the number of people crossing through TSA checkpoints each day is 10 times higher than it was at this time last year, according to WalletHub Communications Manager Diana Polk.
As a result of increased travel, personal-finance website WalletHub has recently released a report on the top 100 summer travel destinations of 2021. New Orleans is ranked 3rd on its list as one of this summer's premiere places to visit out of the 100 most heavily populated metro-areas in the country, according to WalletHub's rankings.
WalletHub utilized a series of 42 indicators based on budget-friendliness and fun to determine the ranking of each city, according to Polk. Each indicator was ranked on a scale from 1, the worst possible score, to 100, the indicator score that is the best of the best.
New Orleans had a total score of 72.51, just .44 of a point behind the area ranked #1, Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL Metro Area.
New Orleans was ranked 2nd among the top five safest cities to visit, alongside Honolulu, HI; Salt Lake City, UT; Sacramento, CA; and Tulsa, OK. It ranked 9th in average COVID cases in the past week per capita, and 11th in number of attractions. New Orleans was also 16th for activities, 17th for cost of cheapest flight, and 19th for both cost of a three-star hotel as well as travel costs and hassles. It was ranked 32nd for local costs, 39th for weather, and 53rd for duration of cheapest flight.
In most areas, New Orleans ranked well above the 50-score average, which helped put it at #3 on WalletHub's list, making it an exciting and desirable place to visit in the summer of 2021.
