Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

BATON ROUGE – Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser is attending the National Association of State Park Directors Conference in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, this week where he will discuss public-private partnerships and work to bring the conference to Louisiana.

Louisiana State Parks will host the Association of Southeast State Park Directors Conference in Baton Rouge next month. Approximately 150 park directors are expected to attend. Lt. Governor Nungesser will promote Louisiana to the National Association of State Park Directors to bring the national conference to our state.

“Anytime we can showcase our state parks and everything we have to offer brings visitors back to Louisiana,” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser.

Lt. Governor Nungesser added that promoting Louisiana’s state parks fits into the recent renaming of the state’s primary travel website and social media channels to ExploreLouisiana.com. In the tourism industry, the word “explore” is being used to promote the great outdoors across the country.

While in Nevada, Lt. Governor Nungesser will also promote public private partnerships.

“Our public private partnerships are proving to be successful in our state parks. These partnerships allow entrepreneurs to come in and establish a business that also benefits the state park in which it is located. With that said, we will never put something in a park that competes with a local business,” said Lt. Governor Nungesser.

Public private partnerships include mountain bike trails, Tentrr glamping, and horseback riding.

“Adding the mountain bike trails at Bogue Chitto State Park in Washington Parish was a game changer. Before the trails, the park had 86,000 visitors with a revenue of $437,000. After the trails were added in 2021, visitation increased to 116,000 and a revenue of more than $800,000,” said Lt. Governor Nungesser.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) to add cabins, conference centers, lazy rivers, and other handicapped accessible park enhancements is open until October 27. For more information on Louisiana State Parks and the RFP, visit LaStateParks.com.