Australian, Kiwi travel agents visit Morgan City on Louisiana tour

A group of travel agents from Australia and New Zealand stopped in Morgan City Monday while touring Louisiana, as part of a trip to the U.S. to promote a new nonstop flight from New Zealand to Houston.
Brand USA, a national marketing organization for tourism in the United States, invited 60 travel agents and tour group operators working from Australia and New Zealand to visit the U.S., Cajun Coast Visitors and Convention Bureau Executive Director Carrie Stansbury said.
“We’re hoping that they sell Louisiana to their customers,” Stansbury said.
Fourteen of the agents are spending the week in Louisiana. The group stopped briefly Monday at the Cajun Coast Welcome and Interpretative Center in Morgan City.
Travel agent Kylie Gretener of Queensland, Australia, said she and other agents flew from Auckland, New Zealand, to Houston last week on the new nonstop flight.
“That’s the promotion of this tour, that now it’s very accessible for Australia and New Zealand to get into the Deep South of America,” Gretener said.
They traveled to Morgan City “to learn a little bit about your environment and wildlife,” Gretener said.
“Everyone knows New Orleans, but that’s pretty much the limited knowledge of a lot of people of Louisiana, I think, because they just hear about the bigger cities,” Gretener said.
“Now we can tell them … it’s worth going to the smaller places as well,” Gretener said.
This tour gives “extra secrets” to tell clients about little-known places to visit that many people would typically drive right past, Gretener said.
“Everywhere, so far, we’ve been spoiled with amazing Louisiana food,” Gretener said.
Sandy Ramage of Paraparaumu Beach, New Zealand, said the new direct flight to the U.S. “is really going to open up the south” for New Zealand travelers.
Ramage enjoyed visiting plantations, New Orleans, and going on swamp tours, she said.
“We don’t have anything like that in our country, so it’s fantastic,” Ramage said.
Ramage was impressed by how friendly people in Louisiana are “everywhere we go,” she said.
At the Cajun Coast center, Brian Pember of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service introduced the tourists to Cypress Tupelo swamps, discussed Bayou Teche Wildlife Refuge and brought an alligator and five different species of turtles.
Cathy Domanico, vice president of global trade development for Brand USA in Washington, D.C., said the group of travel agents made the trip to experience the United States and go through training to become experts on the U.S.
The groups arrived in the U.S. May 19 and all groups touring the U.S. will meet in Houston Thursday for a finale, Domanico said.