NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – You’ll find Tropical Isle on Bourbon Street, where they’ve been serving up world-famous hand grenade drinks since 1984. The owner is now upset with the Marriott hotel after an article came out in which she feels is bashing her business.
Pam Fortner is the owner of Tropical Isle, and she’s not happy with a web article entitled,“Five New Orleans Tourist Traps To Avoid”, which she found on Traveler.Marriott.com.
“Why would they print something that is under their name like that? What’s disturbing is that everyone can read it, and it doesn’t come off the internet,” she said.
The article doesn’t stop at taking shots at just Bourbon Street, Tropical Isle and its hand grenades as things to avoid.
“They even mentioned Cafe Du Monde, Riverboat cruises, French Quarter tours. Are they crazy? She said.
Who wrote the article?
“The article was allegedly written by a Lauren LaBorde, and I can’t quite figure out who she is,” Fortner said.
We called the Marriott and they said Lauren LaBorde does not work for the Marriott or their websites. They are not affiliated with the article, and their social media team will take a look at how this article ended up on the site in the first place.
Still for this business owner, she can’t understand why something so negative would be printed in the first place.
“For this to come out about anything in the city, well it just dumbfounded me. We don’t want people to avoid anything about New Orleans,” Fortner said.
The Marriott also says that they do not hire freelance writers to write for any of their sites, so it’s still a mystery as to how exactly this article ended up on the site.
UPDATE:
Here’s the official written statement from the Marriott.
“Marriott Traveler invites local residents, travel aficionados, or other experts to share their experiences, advice, suggestions and opinions about a particular destination so others might experience the city “like a local”. The opinions shared on Marriott Traveler are those of the contributing authors and do not reflect the opinions of Marriott International or the local Marriott hotels. Marriott International and our hotels in New Orleans greatly value and respect our local partners in hospitality and it was never our intent to offend any of our local tourism neighbors. We sincerely apologize to Pam Fortner, owner of Tropical Isle, or anyone else that may have been offended by the article written by Lauren LaBorde.”
After our story aired, Lauren LaBorde reached out to us on Twitter and said she was hired to do contract work for the hotel, so that’s how the article ended up on the site.