Sneeze Guard Hotel

Wherever you live in Louisiana, or anywhere in the US for that
matter, you might have noticed something has changed in your
local supermarket, in offices, and even in airports and hotels.
That something is, Plexiglass.


Those giant sheets of plexiglass that now stand between you and
the person on the other side of a counter are called Sneeze
Guards. Have you wondered where they suddenly all came from?


Peter Seltzer has laser cutters that he uses to make paper
products at his company, Pete’s Papercrafts. When Covid came
along, Peter switched from paper to plexiglass, and started
making face shields and sneeze guards.


Peter started out by making over 13,000 face shields for members
of the Ochsner Health System. That alone would be an
extraordinary accomplishment, if it was the whole story. But it’s
barely the beginning.


Peter has gone on to make thousands of plexiglass sneeze guards.
And the reason that Peter knew about the initial PPE shortage is
because, as well as being a successful entrepreneur, he's also a
paramedic, and founder and Director of a paramedic training
program for high school kids, called Gateway EMS Training.


Hotel


One of the local business sectors that has been hardest hit by
the pandemic is tourism.


Jim Cook is uniquely familiar with all aspects of the leisure and
convention tourist industry. Jim is General Manager of the
Sheraton Hotel in New Orleans. He’s also a commissioner of the
Downtown Development District in New Orleans, a past Chairman of
the Board of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, and
past President of the Greater New Orleans Hotel & Lodging
Association.


When the tourist and convention business came to a sudden halt in
March, it brought into stark relief just how dependent New
Orleans has become on tourism. At some point the city seems to
have crossed an unseen boundary. New Orleans used to be a place
that people came to, just to experience everyday life. For a few
days a person from somewhere else could eat, shop, drink, and
listen to music like a New Orleanian. Now we discover that some
of New Orleans most revered institutions – from famous
restaurants to the French Quarter itself – can’t survive without
a steady stream of tourists.


There are, apparently, other tourism business models that target
specific types of tourists, not just high volume. The question
New Orleans faces now is, Is there a way to retain a tourist and
convention sector that doesn’t rely on 19 million tourists a
year?


Photos from this by Jill Lafleur are on our website. There's more
conversation about tourism here.


 


See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.